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As he gets older — and deals with ongoing health issues — Elton John is facing his own mortality head-on. For the legendary British singer, who celebrated his 78th birthday earlier this week, that also means revealing exactly what he wants his tombstone to say.

Performing at the London Palladium on Wednesday, March 26, the EGOT winner — who shares sons Zachary, 14, and Elijah, 12, with husband David Furnish — got candid about his epitaph with the crowd.

“My boys are my greatest gift,” he told the audience, per The Sun. “They teach me something every day and all I want on my tombstone is nothing to do with ‘Crocodile f***ing Rock,’ I just want it to say, ‘He was a great dad.'”

While John’s 1972 hit “Crocodile Rock” is one of his signature songs and was the first of his tracks to hit No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100, it’s clear that nothing — even his massive worldwide success — compares to the singer’s love for his family.

It’s a topic John has thought about — and discussed — repeatedly over the years, but one moreso while recording his upcoming new album, Who Believes in Angels?, a collaboration LP with Brandi Carlile.

On a recent episode of the Smartless podcast, the “Can You Feel the Love Tonight” singer spoke about one particular track on the record that had him sobbing for nearly an hour when thinking of his family.

“I wrote a song at the end of the album and I just get the lyrics, [longtime co-writer] Bernie Taupin’s lyrics, called ‘When This Old World Is Done With Me.’ And so I’m writing the verse, like, ‘Oh, this is really pretty.’ And then I get to the chorus and of course it’s about my death. And when you get to my age, which is near 100, you think, ‘How much time have I got left?'” John recalled on the Tuesday, March 25, episode — the same day as his 78th birthday.

“And you’ve got children, you’ve got a wonderful husband, you just think about mortality,” John said. “And so when I got to the chorus, I just broke down for 45 minutes and it’s all on film.”

John and Furnish — who is 16 years younger than the five-time Grammy winner — married in 2014 and welcomed their children later in life. John was 63 when he and Furnish welcomed their eldest, Zachary, via surrogate on Christmas Day 2010.

In September 2024, John released a documentary about his life, titled Elton John: Never Too Late, a project co-directed by Furnish.

In the film, per People, the singer-songwriter shares that his kids “think about my mortality,. They worry about my mortality.”

For Furnish, “I don’t think it’s a conversation you want to have with your children. I don’t want to plant that seed in their mind,” he told People at the time, praising his husband’s strength. “Elton’s been through a lot, but he’s also as strong as an ox. He rarely cancels shows. He’s a strong man, and he’s a healer. He’ll probably outlive me. He’s just so tough.”