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Elton John and band performed at Bonnaroo Music Festival on June 15, 2014
Tuesday, June 17 2014

On June 15, 2014, the voice of one of the most famous and influential radio DJs of all time, Casey Kasem, was silenced for good.

And that evening at the Tennessee music festival Bonnaroo, Elton John — a man who no doubt made Casey's American Top 40 countdown multiple times from the 1970s to the 2000s — paid his respects.

Taking the stage in a sequined "ROCKET MAN" blazer and cobalt spectacles and positioning himself behind his famous red piano, Elton — playing the very first U.S. festival of his entire decade-straddling career — performed side one of his classic Goodbye Yellow Brick Road LP before telling the crowd: "I've been doing this for a long time, and the older I get, the more I love doing it… I came to America in 1970, and I just loved every second of it. And there was one guy on the radio [in America] that passed away today. Travel safely, my angel." He then poignantly played "Don't Let the Sun Go Down on Me" in honor of the late Casey. For many festivalgoers who'd been off the grid all weekend, it was the first they'd heard of the sad news.

Another highlight of Elton's two-hour set was a crowd-rousing, torch-passing duet with modern-day piano man Ben Folds, on the Goodbye Yellow Brick Road cut "Grey Seal." Surely Casey Kasem would have approved.

Earlier in the day on the same stage, Sheffield Britrock darlings Arctic Monkeys (whose frontman Alex Turner declared, "I don't care where you're from, we're all Bonnaroovians today!") honored Elton, dedicating their glam-folk epic "No. 1 Party Anthem," which actually sounded like a Goodbye Yellow Brick Road outtake, to the legend. The dedication was sort of an unofficial way of paying things forward, since two other Bonnaroo performers, MS MR and Sam Smith, had covered the Monkeys' hit "Do I Wanna Know?" earlier in the weekend.

Following is the complete set list of the Bonnaroo Music Festival show on June 15, 2014:

  • Funeral for a Friend
  • Love Lies Bleeding
  • Bennie and the Jets
  • Candle in the Wind
  • Levon
  • Tiny Dancer
  • Philadelphia Freedom
  • Goodbye Yellow Brick Road
  • Rocket Man
  • Hey Ahab
  • I Guess That's Why They Call It the Blues
  • Someone Saved My Life Tonight
  • Grey Seal (with Ben Folds)
  • Sad Songs (Say So Much)
  • All the Girls Love Alice
  • Don't Let the Sun Go Down on Me (dedicated to Casey Kasem)
  • I'm Still Standing
  • The Bitch Is Back
  • Your Sister Can't Twist (But She Can Rock'n'Roll)
  • Saturday Night's Alright for Fighting

  • Your Song
  • Crocodile Rock

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