Stephen James hit out at the portrayal of his late father, Dick, in Sir Elton’s new biopic Rocketman, saying: “He just wasn’t like that.” He claimed the movie, produced by Sir Elton’s husband David Furnish, sets out to destroy “everybody who was helpful or good” to the singer during the early days of his career. Stephen – who helped discover Sir Elton and encouraged his father to sign him up to his music label DJM Records – spoke of his hurt over the film.
Dick James, one of the most successful music publishers in history, who helped launch The Beatles, had been “like a surrogate father” to the singer, he said.
Stephen, 72, spoke out yesterday because his father is unable to defend himself.
He died in 1986 just weeks after an acrimonious legal battle with Sir Elton and his songwriting partner Bernie Taupin over royalties.
Stephen said of the star: “He’s basically a coward. 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.
“They basically depict my father in the film completely opposite to the way he was in real life.
“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.
Dick James, left, with The Beatles at Abbey Road in 1963 (Image: Terry O’Neill/Iconic Images/Getty Images)
“He gave him advice. He was always helping him. My father would always be there.”
Dick James is played in the critically acclaimed film by Line Of Duty’s Stephen Graham.
Stephen said: “They have turned him 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.”
Stephen is also upset at the treatment of Sir Elton’s mother Sheila, who died aged 92 in December 2017.
He said: “Telling the true story is probably not controversial enough for what they wanted to do. They have destroyed several people in the film, not just my father.”
Sir Elton fell out with Dick and Stephen following a legal battle in the High Court over royalties in 1985.
Stephen said his father was deeply hurt at being portrayed as “dishonest” during the hearing.
Stephen James in his Baker Street office, London (Image: Paul Davey/SWNS)
Dick collapsed and died after suffering a heart attack in February 1986, just three months after the conclusion of the case.
At the end of the hearing, according to Stephen, the judge ordered his father’s company to hand over “some royalties” to Sir Elton and Bernie Taupin but made them pay his father’s costs.
Taupin later tearfully apologised, Stephen said.
But, in the singer’s case, sorry really did appear to be the hardest word.
Stephen revealed he has only met Sir Elton once since the bitter court battle when they bumped into each other in the toilet of a restaurant in Nice, France.
He said: “I was standing there and I saw him and, after 28 years, I said to him, ‘Are you OK?’ He wouldn’t look at me. He said, ‘Yeah. I’m OK.Are you OK?’ “That was it but as he was leaving he put his hand on my shoulder and then walked out.
“That’s the only contact I’ve had with him since 1985.
“I asked a psychologist friend how they would interpret what happened and she said to me that was an apology.
Elton John and a young Stephen James (Image: NC)
“His putting his hand on my shoulder was his cowardly way of saying, ‘I’m sorry’.” Stephen was backed up by guitarist Caleb Quaye, 70, who played on Sir Elton’s early recordings and toured with the star.
He said: “Dick was a gentleman. He wasn’t cocky. He was an old-school music man but was smartly dressed. You never heard a cuss word out of him.
“He was like a father, he gave us an opportunity to learn our craft. I don’t understand the fantasy of depicting him like that because he was nothing like it.”
Singer-songwriter Mike Batt, best known for creating music and songs for The Wombles TV series, worked closely with Sir Elton’s first manager Ray Williams.
He branded the film “sickening, vengeful and vicious”.
“The whole film is a lie,” he said. “Disgusting dishonesty that should be called out. Elton and his husband should be ashamed of themselves.
“The film cleverly poses as a brave, honest confession, but is actually an outpouring of bile towards everyone Elton wants to blame for what he became and what he did, casting him as a victim who triumphs over adversity.”
In the film, directed by Dexter Fletcher, Sir Elton is played by Taron Egerton, 29.
It portrays his wild years of rock ‘n’ roll excess before going into a drug rehabilitation unit which helped him into sobriety.
Stephen told how the pianist was still known as Reg Dwight when they discovered him using their studios above a bank in New Oxford Street without permission.
He said: “Because we were above the bank we used to have to tell their security people that we were in the studio late at night.
“On this occasion no one advised them that our studio was being used. It had been an unauthorised session but he had been invited in.
“Caleb Quaye, to whom we had entrusted the use of the studio, said that there was a guy who was quite a useful songwriter and they were helping him make a few demos in the studio.
I said you know you can’t do that and he said, ‘I know but I really think he’s worth persevering with.’ “I said to bring me the tapes. I listened to the tapes. The melodies were good but the lyrics were terrible and I took the tapes to my father. He said you need a lyric writer and see how it works.”
Sir Elton was originally signed up as a songwriter and was teamed with Bernie Taupin after an advert was placed for a lyric writer in the New Musical Express.
All of Sir Elton’s albums up to 1976 were issued on the DJM record label. Dick had also played a pivotal role in The Beatles’ rise to stardom, establishing the Northern Songs record label with the band’s manager Brian Epstein.
Actor Stephen Graham as Dick James in the new biopic Rocketman (Image: NC)
Elton John performs in Watford in 1974 (Image: Anwar Hussein/Getty Images)
Stephen said of his father: “He understood more than anybody the sensitivities that artists go through.
“He had the patience to sit down and just talk to people and let them tell him what was bothering them. I always had huge respect for my father that he gave them so much time.”
And that, Stephen insists, is why he is so upset at his father’s portrayal in the film.
He said: “It’s not just the stereotype. The film makes him look like he didn’t really know what he was doing.
“As my father was probably one of the most successful music publishers ever, it just belies the truth.
“They also turned him into a pretty grotesque person who swears every other word.
“It is so far from how my father used to behave. I’m not saying he was any shrinking violet but he was always very nice to people.
“I think they just had a go at everybody who was helpful or good to him in the past. I don’t understand why they would do that.”
A spokesman for the film last night defended the way it had deviated from reality. He said: ‘”Art is about creating myths to reveal the truth. This is Elton’s life as a musical fantasy. We set out to celebrate Elton John’s imagination, creativity and wondrous possibility.”