ELTON JOHN - ELTON WEPT THROUGHOUT ELLIOT MUSICAL

Flamboyant rocker SIR ELTON JOHN wept throughout the recent premiere of his stage musical BILLY ELLIOT - because the plot closely mirrored his own childhood struggle to realise his dream.

The ROCKET MAN was so impressed by the award-winning movie about a young boy who battles against his working class family to fulfil his ambition of becoming a ballerina, he made it into a musical.

But John was overcome with emotion at last month's (MAR05) preview performance at London's Victoria Palace Theatre, because it brought back poignant memories of his own battle to become a successful singer.

He says, "I could barely watch it. I was crying so much. It moved me because I could see myself in Billy.

"It was like my own childhood and how I broke out into my dream. All those characters, like the dad, I recognised as people in my past. I've never connected so emotionally with anything like it before."