Sir Elton John didn’t know what his song “Rocket Man” was about until recently.

The 1972 pop hit was written with the 75-year-old music legend’s longtime songwriting partner, Bernie Taupin.

Taupin told the ‘I’m Still Standing’ hitmaker the astronaut story that inspired the space-themed song, with Elton revealing, “I never knew that.”

“It was actually a song inspired by Ray Bradbury from his book of science-fiction short stories called ‘The Illustrated Man,’ said Bernie. “In that book, there was a story called ‘The Rocket Man,’ about how astronauts in the future would become sort of an everyday job, so I kinda took that idea and ran with it.”

Are you surprised by the origins of Elton John’s “Rocket Man?”