Elton John reveals how he ‘baked’ his kneecaps into jewelry: ‘These are timeless pieces’

Elton John is good as gold.

The music legend, 78, explained how he turned his kneecaps into jewelry pieces after his double knee replacement in World Gold Council’s new documentary short film, “Touched By Gold.”

“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 — then I rang you,” John said to jewelry designer Theo Fennell, who had approval from John to “do what you want with them.”

“We baked them,” Fennell explained of John’s kneecaps. “We had to bake them to dry them out. Then they get raw like pumice stone, they’re very porous. So we had to paint them with acetate and then just polish them up.”

Fennell then pulled out a sparkling gold-plated necklace made from one of John’s knees. “That’s my right kneecap,” the singer said. “That’s my right patella.”

John continued, “My surgeon said I had the worst knees he’s ever operated on. That hole was actually in my kneecap. It looks a bit like an old artifact from Egypt.”

“That’s what these sort of things, they’re kind of talismatic,” said Fennell. “In 1,000 years, as it says here, this will be Elton John’s kneecap. How many people will believe that? I don’t know. It’ll be sort of like a reliquary.”

John explained that Fennell “brilliantly had the necklace chain made out of bones,” as the jewelry designer said he “thought it would be more fun to have a necklace that reflected the thing at the end of it.”

The pair also revealed that on the back of the necklace is the phrase “I will no longer bow to any man” written in Latin, which, as Fennell pointed out, “you can’t do with a kneecap missing.”

John then turned his attention towards the small gold brooch that was made from his left kneecap.

“It was a smaller kneecap. We couldn’t do so much with it,” Fennell admitted. “It’s an incredibly difficult job to get the gold following the shape of something quite as unusual.”

John proudly added, “I honestly think these are timeless pieces that will last for centuries.”

The “Rocket Man” singer, who had his double knee replacement last year, shocked fans when he wore the necklace of his old right kneecap to the UK premiere of his documentary “Never Too Late” in Oct. 2024

He sported a tailored brown suit and striped button-up with the unconventional jewelry piece dangling around his neck at the event.

John has been open about his various health struggles, including his knee issues, over the last few years.

“To be honest with you, there’s not much of me left,” he said at the New York Film Festival. “I don’t have tonsils, adenoids or an appendix. I don’t have a prostate.”

“I don’t have a right hip or a left knee or a right knee,” John added. “In fact, the only thing left to me is my left hip. But I’m still here.”