Rufus and Elton??

(an email from David)

Ok, I just read in Rolling Stone that RUFIE AND ELTON JOHN have recorded a duet about Matthew Shepard, called "American Triangle" that will be on Elton's new album!!vI guess Rufie isn't "our little secret" anymore... he's a motherfucking ROCK STAR!

I thought this info would cause you to squirt.

Dayvid.

which led me to this article in Rolling Stone

Rufus Sings With Elton
Matthew Shepard tribute to appear on John's upcoming album

Song for Shepard

Rufus Wainwright guests on Elton John's "American Triangle," a tribute to Matthew Shepard, the gay University of Wyoming student who was brutally murdered in 1998 because of his sexual orientation. The song will appear on John's next album, the Pat Leonard-produced Songs From the West Coast, which is due in October.

The two openly gay singer/pianists never actually met during the recording, as Wainwright was in New York and John was in Los Angeles. But after Wainwright laid down the backing vocals for the chorus, he did receive a phone call from the British pop legend.

"He wanted to let me know that he was honored that I worked on his record and that years ago he had a terrible, terrible crush on my father," Wainwright says laughing. (The twenty-seven-year-old Wainwright is the son of noted folk musicians Loudon Wainwright III and Kate McGarrigle.) "He wants to go out for a beer sometime, but more incredible than talking to him was when I was in the studio singing the back-ups, trying to meld with that voice."

The lyrics to "American Triangle" reportedly include the lines: "I've been drinking there on that front porch/Angry kids mean and dumb/Looks like pain in that blue skyline/God hates fags where we come from."

The song is the second high-profile Shepard tribute; Melissa Etheridge's "Scarecrow," from her 1999 album Breakdown graphically accounted his tragic death and her subsequent outrage.

John performed at a benefit for the Matthew Shepard Foundation at the University of Wyoming in 1999.

Well if that isn't the coolest thing I've heard in a while! Fun fun fun! Things have been looking up today, and I am getting a better handle on my position here at Sprint. For that, I thank god! Susan Peterson and I have been trying to arrange a time to get together to try and rehearse a duet (that's right above this journal entry) but to no avail. I have to get the cd first and see if it's appropriate for the both of our voices. I think I'll be fine, but I want to make sure that it is appropriate for her voice, I want everything to be perfect for this variety show. If we don't do that Elton John, Leann Rimes song, we'll just do another perfect one! We'll be a hit! Susan has already asked me to sing with her at some meeting that she is attending, I forgot which date it is. I, of course, accepted her offer! I am getting increasingly excited about this upcoming weekend! On Friday night, Richard is playing a formal, classical recital for two singer friends of his, and I am going to go and record it. I want to record it for a number of reasons 1) for the content. I saw the list of songs that he is going to sing and they are very heavy, operatic arias and the such, so I want to get those. 2) so I can send a copy of the recital to my friend Charlie in Chicago. I haven't spoken with him in a long while, since before we went to Chicago for pride but Bill Poppel told me that he was moving apartments within his building, and that he was really busy with that. I would love to get a hold of him and get his new address so I can send him that tape. So that's Friday evening, after the recital, Richard and I are going to go to the Hilton or whatever, it's right by the Folly Theater downtown, and spend a night, celebrating our anniversary. Can you BELIEVE it? It's been a year!!! We keep on wishing eachother happy anniversary, and it's just so crazy. I know I haven't been writing in this journal a whole heck of a lot, but I just want to say that all these people that have said that our relationship is dysfunctional and horrible or whatever (the unsupportive people in Richard's life) well...there you go. We've been together a year now, and we are more in love than we ever have been, and plan to stay together for a looooooooooong time, so if you plan on CONTINUING to be unsupportive, then you have a long train ride! I feel so wonderful, I feel like I am taking care of my business, I am helping support this relationship, as well as helping when I can with his Mom's care. Everything is going is a really positive direction, I am living in the flow, as it were. I love it. I feel as if I am going in the right direction, and things could not be better! The other thing is (and I keep forgetting this, but I just emailed them) that Scott R. and Todd R. from chorus have a picture from GALA of Richard and I, the first day that we met, and I am going to try and get that picture sent to us, so we can have it for the party this weekend.

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