Australian music critic Ian “Molly” Meldrum has shocked onlookers by dropping his pants during a surprise appearance onstage with Elton John at the singer’s farewell concert in Melbourne, Australia.
Meldrum was in the audience for Sir Elton’s epic Farewell Yellow Brick Road tour when the star paid tribute to him at AAMI Park on Friday night.
“He’s quite honestly a national treasure,” Elton told the crowd.
“I want to thank him for all the love and loyalty he’s shown me over the years. I love you.”
Meldrum then appeared on stage for a riotous version of The Bitch Is Back.
They hugged and kissed before Meldrum pulled down his pants and bared his buttocks.
The pair have been longtime friends but it hasn’t come without its problems – including a seven-year feud.
Elton cut Meldrum out of his life after a controversial August 2012 interview on Sunday Night included footage of the singer dissing Madonna as a “nightmare” and “fairground stripper.”
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During what they thought was an off-the-record chat in Germany, Elton let fly about his fellow superstar, saying she had been “horrible” to Lady Gaga, the godmother of his son Zachary.
“She’s such a nightmare. Sorry. Her career’s over – I can tell you that. Her tour’s been a disaster and it couldn’t happen to a bigger c***” Elton said in the video which was aired.
“If Madonna had any common sense, she’d have made a record like Ray of Light, stayed away from the dance stuff and just been a great pop singer.
“But, no, she had to prove that she was like … and she looks like a f***ing fairground stripper.”
The former Countdown host wrote in his 2016 book Ah Well, Nobody’s Perfect that “a Sunday Night producer went behind my back” by airing the footage.
He also said he was “not at the top of my game” after a serious brain injury from a fall in December 2011, and said the candid remarks were “clearly a chat between two old friends” and not meant to be broadcast.
“I guess I should have been more in control of the final edit and approved the story before it went to air,” Meldrum wrote.
“Elton still thinks it was all my fault, and refused to talk to me when he toured Australia in 2015.
“I’m tempted to quote a line from one of my favorite movies: ‘Frankly, my dear, I don’t give a damn’. But the truth is, I do give a damn. I love Elton.”
The pair worked out their differences during a private meeting brokered by the singer before his Farewell Yellow Brick Road concert in Melbourne in 2019.
“It was just Elton and I, talking about the old days and our wonderful friendship,” Meldrum told the Herald Sun at the time.
“It was lovely. We had a great conversation. We talked about when we first met, all the things we’ve been through, and how important our friendship is.”
Elton gifted Meldrum a book signed with a message that referenced “so many great times and so many not so great times”, before dedicating Don’t Let the Sun Go Down on Me to him at the show.
Elton will perform his Farewell Yellow Brick Road tour again at AAMI Park on Saturday, his final-ever concert in Melbourne.
It’s an encore performance.
His farewell tour started in 2018, traveled across Australia in late 2019 and 2020.