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Music

Sir Elton John Storms off Stage in Las Vegas After Fan Paws at Piano

"No more coming on stage on 'Saturday Night,'" he said. "You fucked it up."
Kevin Mazur / WireImage via Getty Images

Sir Elton John, a British national treasure and apparently very nice chap, walked off the Caesars Palace stage mid-set on Thursday night after being pawed at and distracted by a fan. The incident occurred during John's performance of "Saturday Night's Alright for Fighting," with a group of fans already huddled onstage behind the singer—something of a tradition in John's sets. Visibly disgruntled, tells one person in particular to "fuck off." Here's a TMZ video:

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He came back on after the stage had been cleared, and scolded the room as soon as he sat down. "No more coming on stage on 'Saturday Night,'" he said. "You fucked it up."

In a statement to E!, John said that he was particularly upset with one person trying to touch his piano keys in the middle of the song. "Thursday night in Las Vegas a fan put his hands on the piano keys while I was playing and continued to do so even after I asked him to stop," John said. "He then proceeded to reach over the piano and try to take pictures, completely disrupting the performance."

The singer continued: "I bring fans onstage every evening when we play 'Saturday Night' in the set, it is always a lovely part of the show where I get to meet them, shake their hands and have them right there with me while I play. They have always been very courteous to the fact we are in the middle of playing a song live. This guy was rude, disruptive and had no care or respect for our show and so I let him know how I felt, then left the stage until they had removed him."

John apparently moved from this unpleasantness into a performance of "The Circle of Life" from Disney's The Lion King.

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