Jun 1, 2026 · 24 min · 14 segments
Partners in life and activism, Elton John and David Furnish sit down with Billy Porter to reflect on their life together: decades of LGBTQ+ advocacy, the impact of the Elton John AIDS Foundation, and…
David FurnishGuest
Billy PorterHost
Elton JohnGuestNo entities detected.
Elton, you've said that you wished you would have gotten in the fight against AIDS earlier.
Yes, I, uh, you know, when I got sober, I realized that, yes, I had done some benefits and some concerts, um, no, I thought, you know, I really admired Larry Kramer, all those people that actually got on the streets, and as a gay man, I didn't think I'd done enough.
And so I thought, "Well, how can I make amends for not doing enough and not standing up-
... and, and shouting a bit more?" So I decided to start the Elton John AIDS Foundation from, uh, the kitchen table in Atlanta with John Scott and, um, Virginia Banks, and I vowed that when we started it, we would be very careful with the, the money we spent.
Um, and in those days, I started off by s- you know, delivering meals, um, in Atlanta to people who had AIDS and were dying, and they would open their front door just ajar, and we'd put the m- meal on the floor, and they'd take it, and it was horrible.
Um, but I think we've, we've made great advances, and we've helped a lot of gay people and a lot of people who aren't gay with HIV and AIDS.
Here in the UK, we did an event called the White Tie and Tiara Ball in the garden of this house that, in its biggest year, 2008, raised 10.5 million pounds in one night.
People that came to this event really dug deep and gave because they felt the spirit of what we were trying to create.
Elton, you've said that you wished you would have gotten in the fight against AIDS earlier.
Yes, I, uh, you know, when I got sober, I realized that, yes, I had done some benefits and some concerts, um, no, I thought, you know, I really admired Larry Kramer, all those people that actually got on the streets, and as a gay man, I didn't think I'd done enough.
And so I thought, "Well, how can I make amends for not doing enough and not standing up-
... and, and shouting a bit more?" So I decided to start the Elton John AIDS Foundation from, uh, the kitchen table in Atlanta with John Scott and, um, Virginia Banks, and I vowed that when we started it, we would be very careful with the, the money we spent.
Um, and in those days, I started off by s- you know, delivering meals, um, in Atlanta to people who had AIDS and were dying, and they would open their front door just ajar, and we'd put the m- meal on the floor, and they'd take it, and it was horrible.
Um, but I think we've, we've made great advances, and we've helped a lot of gay people and a lot of people who aren't gay with HIV and AIDS.
Here in the UK, we did an event called the White Tie and Tiara Ball in the garden of this house that, in its biggest year, 2008, raised 10.5 million pounds in one night.
People that came to this event really dug deep and gave because they felt the spirit of what we were trying to create.
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