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Madison Square Garden concert

Associated Press/File (ENLARGE)
John Lennon, circa 1969, at an unknown location.
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MORE ELTON: Music Elton loves Memorable moments Photos: Elton through the years Singer reminisces about life, music and Atlanta Concert facts and figures Find the audio slideshow in the videobox on ajc.com

Elton John's birthday concert Sunday night at Madison Square Garden will be a lavish affair, complete with a gospel choir and selections from "Madman Across the Water." But it still likely won't compare with his Thanksgiving 1974 concert there, when John Lennon shared the stage in his last live concert appearance.

After their single "Whatever Gets You Through the Night" hit No. 1, John talked Lennon into doing three songs with him on stage that night.

The ex-Beatle, estranged from wife Yoko Ono at the time and having spent years away from the stage, was so nervous he was sick backstage, John says. Ono had sent a note and a gardenia to his dressing room; John didn't alert Lennon that Ono was in the audience.

"It was an amazing night," John recalls. "It was an incredible compliment for me. The Beatles single-handedly changed the face of music. When John came out, it was just the most noise for anyone at a concert that I've ever heard in my life. I don't think he could believe it.

"Later, we went out to the Pierre Hotel and sat there with [paranormalist] Uri Geller bending forks and spoons in front of us. Yoko and John got back together that night. John became complete again."

Eleven months later, Sean Ono Lennon was born. Elton John became his godfather.

Atlanta's human rights museum

Like many Atlantans, Elton John applauded the city's acquisition last year of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s papers (Coretta Scott King was briefly a neighbor) and its plans for a human rights museum.

One of pop music's first stars to publicly come out as gay, John is also aware of the resistance from some to including stories of gays and lesbians in the struggle for human rights in the proposed museum.

"The [King] papers are a fantastic thing for this city to have," he says. "It saddens me, though, when I see African-American religious leaders coming out against gay people. That's not what Martin Luther King Jr. was about. He was speaking about civil rights for everybody. ... It's essential that everyone be represented in the museum.

"Atlanta is a progressive city with a huge gay and lesbian population and history. It's where people gravitate to from all over the South, because they feel welcomed here."

— Richard Eldredge