Academy Award winner, two-time Golden Globe winner, Recording Academy President’s Award of Merit recipient, and Songwriters Hall of Fame Johnny Mercer Award winner, Bernie Taupin is best known for his legendary songwriting career with co-creator Sir Elton John.

Over 50 years ago, they forged a creative bond that is as strong as ever, as is their evergreen catalog of well known hits including “Rocketman,” “Bennie and the Jets,” and “I’m Still Standing.” Their first hit in America, “Your Song,” was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 2013. John and Taupin’s enduring partnership began in 1967 and has thus far resulted in: 

- over 35 gold and 25 platinum albums 
- 30 consecutive US Top 40 hits 
- more than 300 million records sold worldwide 
- the record for the biggest selling single of all time, ‘Candle in the Wind ’97’, which sold over 33,000,000 copies.

And they are still going strong.

Lauded throughout his music career, in addition to the aforementioned, Taupin has received innumerable awards including eight Ivor Novello Awards, awards from Billboard, ASCAP, the Film Critics, Britian’s Music Industry Trust, etc. 

As important as music is to Taupin, his inescapable passion to create visual art is insatiable. Acclaimed by collectors and prominent galleries, Taupin has been forging abstract and contemporary mixed-media pieces in his studio since the early 1990s. To date and due to the success of this second career, he considers this a full time endeavor. His works have been exhibited at domestic and international galleries including Galerie Michael, Mark Borghi Fine Art and Waterhouse + Dodd. His work is regularly exhibited at nationally renowned fairs including Art Miami, Art Aspen and Art Southampton. In 2016, billboard-sized images of his piece “Sleeping Beauty” were selected to set the motif at the entrance for Miami’s Art Wynwood. 

In 2010, Taupin added 'radio personality' to his long list of accomplishments with the debut of American Roots Radio. Thanks to satellite radio, his unfathomable enthusiasm for all genres of music was broadcast nationwide twice a month from his Central California ranch. With dogs barking and hens clucking in the background, Taupin enthusiastically showcased his favorite multi-genre musicians ranging from Willie Dixon and Louis Jordon to Dean Martin, The Louvin Brothers and Lionel Hampton.

Recent highlights in his life include posthumously inducting his musical hero, Willie Dixon, into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in June 2015, being depicted by Jamie Bell in the international hit film Rocketman, and receiving a Golden Globe and Oscar nomination in 2020 with Elton for their Original Song “(I’m Gonna) Love Me Again” for the film.

As a kid from the county of Lincolnshire, England, Taupin’s childhood was idyllic, but lacked contemporary comforts. Born in 1950 to a French military father and an unconventional English mother, the Taupin family endured all four seasons without electricity until Taupin turned five. He was the middle child of three sons, and as he matured he radiated a fascination with the American Old West.

As a teen teetering on the precipice of a bleak existence as a factory worker, he auspiciously answered an ad placed by Liberty Records in London that quickly changed his life and firmly set him on an artistic road. In 1967, a match made in heaven was orchestrated by Ray Williams who was looking for a lyricist for a young piano player named Reg Dwight (who shortly thereafter changed his name to Elton John before releasing his first solo album.) Taupin had the lyrics and John had the music. They were fast friends, started writing together, and quickly discovered a shared love of music, film and literature.

And the rest, as they say, is history.

Click HERE to visit Bernie Taupin's art website.

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