Greg Weaver

greg.weaver@indystar.com

Elton John's music has been in heavy rotation as a prelude to Donald Trump's political rallies in Indiana.

"Tiny Dancer" and "Funeral for a Friend/Love Lies Bleeding" were a constant at both of the Republican presidential front-runner's events this week at the Indiana State Fairgrounds.

So you might get the impression that John endorses Trump, or at least has given permission for his music to be used.

Turns out neither is the case, according to comments John made to The Guardian in February, shortly after Trump started using the Rocket Man's music at political events.

“I don’t really want my music to be involved in anything to do with an American election campaign. I’m British. I’ve met Donald Trump, he was very nice to me, it’s nothing personal, his political views are his own, mine are very different, I’m not a Republican in a million years," John told the British newspaper. "Why not ask Ted (expletive) Nugent? Or one of those (expletive) country stars? They’ll do it for you.”

In a strange turn of events, The Telegraph this week reported that Trump wants John to play at his inauguration, should he win the presidency.

That would seem to be a hard sell at this point.

John and Trump seem a strange political match, anyway. John, whose husband is filmmaker David Furnish, is a strong advocate for gay marriage and LGBT rights. Trump in January said he disagrees with the Supreme Court's decision to legalize same-sex marriage and hopes it can be changed, according to Politico. However, Trump did recently speak out against a North Carolina law that bans transgender individuals from using a bathroom that does not match their gender at birth.

And, back in 2005, Trump congratulated John on his wedding to Furnish, calling it "a marriage that's going to work" in a blog post.

"I'm very happy for them," Trump wrote, according to Mother Jones. "If two people dig each other, they dig each other."

Trump and John have a friendly history in Indiana. They both rushed to Indiana, along with Michael Jackson, to console Ryan White's mother after the teenager died following a long battle with AIDS in 1990.

Neither the Trump campaign nor John's publicist immediately responded to requests for comment for this story.



