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Outlook: 'Becoming' Elton John saved my life

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Tom Cridland

01/05/2024 GMT

'Becoming' Elton John saved my life

BBC World Service - Outlook, 'Becoming' Elton John saved my life

Elton John tribute act Tom Cridland says his hero helped him overcome alcohol addiction

Tom Cridland discovered Elton John's music at university and was instantly obsessed. Later, when Tom was struggling with alcohol addiction, it was Elton's music that saved him.

When Tom Cridland went to university in the UK he discovered Elton John's music for the first time and loved it instantly. He was a music obsessive and knew every song but by the time he left university Tom was struggling with his drinking and became addicted to alcohol. Until, years later, inspired by Elton John's sobriety, he managed to quit. When Tom nearly relapsed during the Covid-19 pandemic it was learning the piano and all of Elton's songs, that kept him sober and lead to a successful new career as a tribute act.

Brazilian Dado de Oliveira manages a football team called Manthiqueira based south of Rio de Janeiro. He's also a philosophy fanatic and he has a dream that football could be different, that games could be played with no referees at all, players could be unconditionally honest and that matches would be all about the beautiful game. Trying to apply this philosophy to his team has not been easy. He told Outlook's Andrea Kennedy his story. 

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(Photo: Tom Cridland playing piano on stage. Credit: Tom Cridland)

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