During a recent interview, Elton John discovered the true inspiration behind his 1972 song "Rocket Man," much to his surprise. The singer sat down with the track's co-writer, Bernie Taupin, and the two uncovered that Elton had never known the story behind his own song. Elton and Taupin first met in 1967 after responding to an advertisement for songwriting. Five years later, they released their first hit track, "Rocket Man," which Elton described as an easy song to write a melody for due to its spacious theme. It was during this interview that Taupin finally revealed his original source of inspiration for the track, which Elton had been previously unaware of. “It was actually a song inspired by Ray Bradbury from his book of science-fiction short stories called The Illustrated Man,” Taupin explained. “In that book, there was a story called The Rocket Man, which was about how astronauts in the future would become sort of an everyday job… so I kinda took that idea and ran with it.” To this, Elton responded: “Do you know, I never knew that.”