Elton John recalls the drag names he bestowed upon some of his most famous friends including Rod Stewart, Freddie Mercury and John Lennon.
Sir Elton delves into this topic in The Queer Bible, a new book due out June 15 made up of a number of essays from various queer celebrities including Tan France, Gus Kenworthy, Paris Lees, Russell Tovey and Munroe Bergdorf.
Rolling Stone published an excerpt from the book written by John who details his fandom of legendary drag queen Divine and drag culture, in general.
“When I came out as gay and met [my manager] John Reid, he had so many gay friends and employees it felt natural to give each other drag names,” writes John. “In a way, designating someone with a drag name was my way of telling them I loved them: drag is a communal sport – I like to get everyone involved.”
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He continued, “Tony became ‘Joy’ and I became ‘Sharon’, because I was so common. Rod Stewart was always ‘Phyllis’. Freddie Mercury became ‘Melina’ after Melina Mercouri, the Greek actress and singer. He was a real Melina, I can assure you. John Lennon became ‘Carol Dakota’ after his New York building, the Dakota.”
John even offered some advice on how to come up with your very own drag name.
“If you can’t think of the correct name, you go to the surname first and work it out from there,” he notes. “Not everyone gets a drag name. But all of my dearest friends are bequeathed with one.”
