Patti LaBelle, the queen of soul and apparently Tupperware, can’t stop gushing about her precious food containers. The pie-slinging songstress—who’s turned her kitchen skills into a “Patti Pies” empire—dished out a laugh-out-loud story on Sherri Shepherd’s daytime gabfest that’s juicier than her sweet potato filling.
Rewind to the groovy days when Elton John was still plain old Reginald Dwight, tickling the ivories for Patti’s gigs in the UK with his Bluesology crew. Offstage, they weren’t just harmonizing—they were card-sharking! “Honey, I fleeced those boys for every last pound,” Patti cackled. “Left ‘em so broke they couldn’t even buy a scone, so I had to play chef to keep ‘em from starving!”
Patti turned her flat—because that’s what the Brits call a shoebox apartment—into a soul-food hotspot, hosting her bandmates Nona Hendryx, Sarah Dash, and Cindy Birdsong, plus Reggie and his posse. She’d whip up feasts fit for royalty and pack the leftovers in her sacred Tupperware. “Listen, my Tupperware’s my crown jewels—I don’t just hand it out like candy, same as my shopping bags!” she declared. “I sent those boys home with grub, and guess what? They ghosted me on the return policy!”
Years later, Patti’s still salty about her unreturned plastic. She’s even cornered Elton—now a glittery superstar—about it. “I told him straight up, ‘I want my durn Tupperware back!’” she laughed. Then came the plot twist: two years after their card-table hustle, Reggie-now-Elton rang her up. “He goes, ‘Patti, come see my show!’ I’m like, ‘Who’re you opening for, kid?’ He drops, ‘I’m Elton John now!’ I’m thinking, ‘Well, slap me silly—he zoomed past me to the big leagues!’”
Fast forward to 2005, and the two teamed up for Elton’s Classic Moments album, plus a Vegas duet that turned into a Tupperware showdown. “He’s mid-performance, yanking off his blingy rings and plunking ‘em on the piano,” Patti recounted. “We wrap up, and I go, ‘Elton, your rings!’ He smirks, ‘That’s your Tupperware, darling.’ I’m like, ‘You sneaky dog!’”
Patti’s still rocking that “beautiful” ring, a sparkly keepsake she cherishes more than a perfectly sealed burp from her Tupperware. Looks like Elton’s off the hook—for now—but we’re betting she’s still got an itemized list of every container he owes her!
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