Why Elton John so rude?

Answer 1

He's not rude generally speaking, but may have come across as such during some interviews he's given on the radio or in the print media.

The reasons for this may be twofold- the most likely one is that he was treated appallingly by the British tabloid press when he came out as homosexual in the mid-1980s. Although gay pop stars were known by then, they were confined largely to the New Romantic movement (i.e. Boy George, etc.), which was known to be a passing fad that would only last for a few years. Elton was the first mainstream rock star to declare his homosexuality, and as a result suffered terribly at the hands of the popular newspapers. They made the most scurrilous claims about him, which initially he tried to laugh off and treat as a joke, often playing up to them by acting 'camp' in interviews, but the poor man had to endure some really horrible libels about his private life and his sexual activities.

Matters came to a head in the late 1990s, when several British tabloids made the outrageous claim that he was effectively a paedophile, having underage boys drugged so that he could sleep with them. This was, of course, totally untrue- Elton lodged a libel suit against the 'papers concerned, was fully vindicated and received compensation (which he gave to his AIDS charity), but ever since then he has understandably been suspicious and guarded about the media, not entirely trusting them and somtimes reacting defensively if he feels they are probing too far into his private life.

The other possible reason is that he is small, and small men can often be prone to being quite belligerent and a bit paranoid about their stature.

But this is the way he is to the media, not to people he meets personally- if you were to meet him face to face, you would find him a perfect gentleman, polite, charming and courteous.

(P.S. Another possible reason why he can sometimes be perceived as rude is that he has a mischevious sense of humour. He can sometimes do parodies of the way people talk to him, or make replies to questions that seem at face value to be sarcastic, but it's not meant unkindly. He's laughing WITH the other person, not AT them, and mocks himself a lot of the time!)