He may have been made in England, but Elton John pays attention to the goings-on in America, too. And right now, he’s not impressed.
“It seems to be, in America at the moment, that people who are standing and screaming at each other are not talking to each other,” the singer said Monday at American University. “And there’s a lot of spite, whether it be politics, sexuality, religion, whatever, it’s a very uncomfortable place to be at the moment.”
It’s a big change, John said, since he first came over in 1970.
“I’m just worried about the current climate in America,” he said, before continuing with a harsher critique. “I’m just sick of it in America, everyone just standing there saying, ‘You’re horrible,’ ‘You’re horrible,’ it’s so childish.”
John visited AU to take part in the 18th annual World TeamTennis Smash Hits match, an event he co-founded with Billie Jean King to benefit the Elton John AIDS Foundation. The Washington location was picked, in part, because of the city’s high HIV rate, with half of the live auction’s proceeds going directly to the District. “I’ve always found that of all the sports it was tennis people on the page first in supporting AIDS,” John said, explaining the event’s origin. This year the match attracted greats like Andre Agassi and Anna Kournikova, who played on Team Elton John, and Martina Navratilova and Mark Philippoussis, who played on Team Billie Jean King.
“I think we’re going to win, not that that matters to me at all,” John said beforehand, admitting that he cared about the outcome. He played in the first “celebrity” match, before letting the more seasoned pros take over.
His team lost to King’s 19-15.
