Patti LaBelle Cooked Meals for a Pre-Fame Elton John

Patti LaBelle has all the time paid it ahead.

On the Dec. 3 episode of Julia Louis-Dreyfus’ podcast Wiser Than Me, LaBelle opened up about her friendship with Elton John and the way she typically ended up cooking for him pre-fame.

Louis-Dreyfus, 63, requested LaBelle, 80, about a few of her well-known pals, together with Prince, Mick Jagger and Nina Simone, and the way the gifted prepare dinner typically made meals for them. 

“I’ve cooked for therefore many,” the “On My Personal” singer mentioned, including that she additionally made meals for Richard Pryor. However with John, 77, their culinary bond goes again to earlier than both of them was well-known.

“Elton John was my piano participant again within the day,” the Grammy winner shared. “And so his band would come to my flat after the exhibits and we’d play playing cards for cash. They usually misplaced each time.”

“So I gained all of the kilos and despatched them residence with Tupperware with meals each evening we performed as a result of they could not afford meals,” she continued. On the time, John performed together with his band Bluesology, and he was nonetheless utilizing his delivery identify, Reginald Dwight. 

LaBelle informed Louis-Dreyfus that years later, “Reggie” referred to as her. “He mentioned, ‘I would like you to come back to my present tonight.’ I mentioned, ‘A present, the place?’ He mentioned ‘On the Spectrum in Philadelphia,’ ” she remembered. “So I mentioned, ‘Oh, who’re you opening for?’ He mentioned, ‘I am Elton John now.’ I mentioned, ‘You heifer!’ Oh, did I inform him some dangerous issues! I mentioned, ‘You made it earlier than me, honey.’ ”

“And it was only a stunning, stunning second,” the “Woman Marmalade” singer mentioned. A long time later, within the 2000s, John was doing his Crimson Piano residency in Vegas and so they sang a duet collectively. “And after this music was finished, he had taken his rings off,” the singer mentioned. “And I mentioned, so right here, ‘Listed here are your rings, Elton.’ And he mentioned, ‘No. That is to your Tupperware that you simply gave me again within the day.’ So he paid me with a good looking ring.”

LaBelle informed Louis-Dreyfus she nonetheless has the ring to today, although she “by no means” wears it as a result of “it’s so manly.” LaBelle mentioned she takes her Tupperware very significantly, including, “I really like my Tupperware,” so she was joyful in regards to the commerce. Of John, she added, “He’s pal.”

Along with their early days enjoying collectively within the Nineteen Sixties, LaBelle and John additionally took half in The Who’s 1989 tour of their rock opera Tommy.

Although LaBelle is lauded for her one-of-a-kind singing voice, she’s additionally extensively identified for her cooking expertise, together with her candy potato pies, which went viral in 2015 when she started promoting them at Walmart.

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“At any time when I’d make pies at residence, folks would simply go loopy and would ask for extra. So I mentioned, ‘I do know that is proper, and I believe we higher do one thing with this concept,’ ” LaBelle informed PEOPLE in 2017. “I anticipated them to do properly as a result of the style is phenomenal, however I didn’t know that it might turn into what it’s.”

Again in Might, LaBelle celebrated her eightieth birthday at a star-studded social gathering. She informed PEOPLE of the bash, “Everyone within the trade that I do know have been right here, and I had a number of tears, however I needed to carry on my lashes, so I could not cry an excessive amount of.”