Bernie Taupin Points to Ray Bradbury, Not David Bowie, as the Source for ‘Rocket Man’ — and Elton John Only Found Out Recently

The 1972 single “Rocket Man (I Think It’s Going To Be A Long, Long Time)” made Elton John a global figure, following the more modest success of “Your Song” two years earlier. The track’s portrait of an astronaut ground down by routine interplanetary travel has always carried a particular emotional weight. Most listeners assumed a lineage back to David Bowie’s “Space Oddity.” Bernie Taupin, who wrote the lyrics, says otherwise.

In a 2023 joint interview, Taupin explained that the song grew directly out of Ray Bradbury’s “The Rocket Man,” a short story from the 1951 collection The Illustrated Man. Bradbury’s story, Taupin noted, imagines a future where being an astronaut is just another job. The lyricist took that concept and gave it a weary, human scale. “It actually wasn’t inspired by that at all,” he said of the Bowie comparison.

Taupin elaborated on the writing process during a 2018 conversation with the Wall Street Journal. Driving north through England in mid-1971, he began forming lines in his head. The verse came quickly, pulling from Bradbury’s idea of space travel as drudgery rather than adventure. The unusual angle was a deliberate move away from the era’s more heroic depictions.

For John, the Bradbury connection was news. Sitting beside Taupin, he admitted he had never known. The silence between the two in that moment is easy to picture. A song that sold millions, covered by countless artists, and anchored a six-decade career was built on a literary nod that the performer himself missed until decades later.