Taupin Talks Memoir

Longtime Santa Ynez Valley resident Bernie Taupin, 73, longtime lyricist for rocker Elton John, has published a new memoir Scattershot: Life, Music, Elton, and Me.

Taupin provides insight into his close friendship with the legendary piano man and their remarkably successful collaboration which produced over 50 Top 40 hits.

He was a founding member of the Hollywood Vampires, a notorious celebrity drinking club founded in the 1970s by rocker Alice Cooper with former Monkee Micky Dolenz, Ringo Starr, Harry Nilsson, Keith Moon, and John Lennon.

In one particularly amusing episode, Taupin recalls hanging out at a popular New York drag bar, The Gilded Grape, with Queen singer Freddie Mercury and tennis legend Billie Jean King, when two drag queens got into a fistfight which ended at their table.

“Sequins scattered, wigs went flying, and mascara and tears ran in rivulets,” he recounts. “While I was mildly amused, Freddie was positively ecstatic getting into the spirit of things egging them on with a gleeful commentary of camp encouragement.”

Taupin sold his 30-acre ranch, where he lived for 25 years, for $4.7 million in 2017.