Elton John hired Wembley Arena for Glastonbury rehearsals, Jacob Lusk reveals

Glastonbury 2023 saw Elton John bring the curtain down on a historic career, so it’s no surprise that he went all out to ensure that his preparations for the career-defining gig were suitably befitting.

Gabriels frontman Jacob Lusk – who duetted with Elton on ‘Are You Ready For Love?’ at the show – has revealed that the Rocketman hired out London’s Wembley Arena for rehearsals with his guest stars last year.

“He’s the hardest working man in show business,” Lusk told Rolling Stone UK at the 2024 BRIT Awards last weekend.

“He had a show in Paris the Wednesday before Glastonbury. He flew back to London and we rehearsed on the Thursday at Wembley Arena!”

It’s testament to the scale of Elton’s star that he booked the space – which is considered a performance milestone for any artist – for mere rehearsals.

Looking back on the moment when Elton first asked him to perform, Lusk recalled: “I’d done my first cover for V Man in conversation with Elton and he said ‘maybe I’ll bring you out at Glastonbury’ and I just thought ‘yeah, sureeee.’

“A few weeks later in LA I got a call at 6AM and I wasn’t going to answer because it was so early. I just answered and said, ‘Who is this?’ He was like, ‘It’s Elton baby!’ I immediately apologised, I didn’t realise it was you! From then on, we just planned it.”

But back to Gabriels, Lusk says the acclaimed soul trio are now all systems go on album two, the follow-up to last year’s Angels & Queens. “We’re recording and we actually sang one of the songs at KOKO the other night. We’re gonna keep working and we’ll see what happens. It’s a little more wild and fun, but you’ll have to wait and see…”