Aside from blasting the filmmaker behind 'Rocketman', Stephen James also labels the 'Sacrifice' singer 'a coward' for feeling 'the need to try to destroy everybody who helped him.'
- May 29, 2019
AceShowbiz - The son of British music mogul Dick James has lashed out at the filmmakers behind the new Elton John biopic, insisting they've got his dad all wrong.
Stephen James claims his father, who was a big part of Elton's early career, was nothing like the foul-mouthed Cockney he is portyade as by actor Stephen Graham in "Rocketman".
"They basically depict my father in the film completely opposite to the way he was in real life," James says. "It's rather upset me because my father was a nice guy. Elton's own father had run off and wasn't around. He treated my father at the time as very much a father figure, and my father treated Elton very much as if he was a son."
"They have turned him (my father) into this stereotype with a big fat cigar, swearing every other word. He just wasn't like that. He never got aggressive. He never lost his temper. He never swore. But that's how they have made him in the film."
And he blames Elton for the way his father is portrayed in the movie.
"He's basically a coward," James tells NME.com. "He's never been able to really express his emotions properly, certainly not to me. I don't understand why he seems to feel the need to try to destroy everybody who helped him. We only ever tried to do the best for him and to promote his career. I really am very upset that he has turned on people in this way.
Dick James died three months after the end of a royalties battle with Elton in 1985.
