Elton John Turned Part of His Body Into ‘Timeless’ Jewelry Pieces — Video

When Elton John went under the knife to have his kneecaps removed, most people would have said goodbye to those bones forever — but not the flamboyant Rock and Roll Hall of Famer. What he did next is something nobody saw coming. Scroll down to see the jaw-dropping jewelry pieces and watch the clip for yourself.

Elton John, 78, has never been one to shy away from the extraordinary. A self-confessed lover of all things that sparkle, John has gold records, golden awards, and a golden life to match. But his latest bling takes his obsession with precious things to an entirely new level — one that left even his own surgeon speechless.

In a new documentary short titled "Elton John — Touched By Gold", the music icon sits down with London jewelry designer Theo Fennell and reveals the remarkable story behind his most personal pieces yet. When John had his kneecaps surgically removed — the left one first, then the right — he made an unusual request in the operating room.

"When I had my kneecaps removed, the left one first and then the right, I asked my surgeon if I could keep the kneecaps, which he was rather startled about," John tells Fennell in the film. He then rang the jeweler with an equally startling proposition: would Fennell be prepared to take both kneecaps and do whatever he wanted with them?

Fennell, to his credit, totally got the assignment.

The designer baked the bones first to dry them out, which caused them to become porous, resembling pumice stone. He then painted them with acetate and polished them up until they gleamed. From the larger right kneecap, Fennell crafted a necklace — threading the chain through a natural hole in the bone.

The back of the piece is engraved with a Latin phrase meaning "I will no longer bow to any man," which Fennell noted with a wry smile is rather ironic, given that John can no longer physically bow to anyone with his kneecaps gone. The smaller left kneecap, having less material to work with, was transformed into a brooch.

When Fennell held the finished necklace up to the camera, John was visibly moved. "That is amazing," he said, marveling at the gleaming pendant. "That one, that's the right kneecap. That's my right patella."

John said his surgeon had told him he had "the worst knees he's ever operated on", and yet the finished piece carries a strange, ancient beauty. "It looks like an old artifact from Egypt or something," John said. Fennell described the piece as "talismanic."

"I love doing things that, in a thousand years, this will be Elton John's kneecap," Fennell said with a grin. "How many people will believe that? I don't know."

John certainly believes in the pieces' longevity. "I honestly think these are timeless pieces that will last for centuries," he declared.

Viewers who caught the clip online had thoughts — and they weren't holding back.

"My-my, the wealthy really doesn't know what to do with their insane amount of money," one commenter marveled. Another recoiled entirely, gasping, "This is creepy like jeffery dahmer [sic]." A third kept it short and sharp, writing, "That's nasty."

Others were equally baffled. "Thats js mad weird 🪑🪑," one viewer spluttered. But some saw the humor in it all. "What to get the man who has everything?!" one fan quipped gleefully.

A more supportive commenter rallied to John's defense, cheering, "His body, his choice!!!" And one forward-thinking follower had their eye firmly on the future, declaring, "It will worth be millions one day!"

Whether you find it ghoulish, genius, or somewhere gloriously in between, one thing is certain — only Elton John could turn a pair of surgically removed kneecaps into a conversation about art, legacy, and eternity.

See the jewelry pieces and watch the documentary clip below.

Dressed in a black pinstripe blazer and his signature embellished dark glasses, Elton John animatedly gestures with both hands as he recounts the story of his kneecap surgery to jeweler Theo Fennell in a scene from the documentary short "Elton John — Touched By Gold". | Source: YouTube/World Gold Council

Theo Fennell holds up the finished kneecap necklace — its pale, organic bone pendant edged in gold — over a red jewelry box, with other gold pieces displayed on stands visible in the background of his London workshop. | Source: YouTube/World Gold Council

The back of the kneecap necklace, fully gilded in gold, twists on its delicate bone-link chain to reveal the Latin inscription engraved across its uneven surface — catching the light against a soft, bokeh backdrop. | Source: YouTube/World Gold Council

Elton John holds the completed necklace up with both hands, stretching the gold bone-segment chain wide to display the irregular, golden kneecap pendant hanging at its center — the piece's natural hole clearly visible at its core. | Source: YouTube/World Gold Council

The brooch crafted from Elton John's smaller left kneecap rests on a red velvet jewelry box, its bone fragment encased in an ornate gold setting decorated with intricate detailing in white and green enamel. | Source: YouTube/World Gold Council

Elton John wears his patella necklace at the Elton John: Never Too Late Headline Gala during the 68th BFI London Film Festival at the Royal Festival Hall, London, on 10 October 2024 — the pale, porous bone pendant framed in gold and set with a diamond-encrusted loop through its natural hole, hanging against his striped pink shirt on the bone-link chain.