Elton John knows how he wants to be best remembered after he dies.
As he was honored as TIME‘s Icon of the Year, the singer, 77, reflected on fatherhood and how his role as a dad is his most important.
“On my gravestone, all I want it to say is, ‘He was a great dad,’ ” John told the outlet while speaking alongside his husband, David Furnish.
The “Rocketman” musician and Furnish, 62 — who have been together for more than three decades — share two children together: sons Zachary, 13, and Elijah, 11.
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John shared a similar sentiment when speaking with Good Morning America‘s Robin Roberts in an interview that aired on Dec. 11.
“My music speaks for itself,” he said. “My legacy is that I was a great husband and an even better father… The music, the career is fantastic. It’s been mind-blowing, groundbreaking. But the most important thing to me in my life is making sure my children are happy, they have a wonderful life and that I was good to them. That’s all that counts.”
The family joined John on stage for his final performance at Los Angeles’ Dodger Stadium in 2022, a move that was intentional on the singer’s part.
“Elton wanted the world to really see and feel why he made the decision to stop touring,” Furnish told GMA.
In November, while appearing on Radio Andy to promote Tammy Faye on Broadway, John spoke about becoming a father later in life, which he called “the greatest thing I’ve ever done.”
“For me personally, I’ve had an amazing life, great career, incredible achievements, music, blah, blah, blah, but I would say that our sons, and David, are the most important things to me,” the British artist said.
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However, John is aware that he is at a more advanced age than most parents with young kids. In Elton John: Never Too Late, the new documentary based on his life, the music icon detailed that his two children express fears about his death.
“They think about my mortality. They worry about my mortality,” John said in the film, which premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) earlier this year.
In their joint interview with TIME, Furnish also spoke about why he and John chose not to homeschool their two sons.
“We deliberately didn’t homeschool our children because we want them to be their own people and to define life as they want to be defined,” he explained.
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