“Surrogate” Elton John

It was 1985 and Adam Chester had just graduated from college. He was working in a record store when Davey Johnstone, Elton John’s music director and guitarist, walked in and started browsing the shop.

“Being a fan of Elton and his band, I immediately recognized him,” said Chester, who struck up a conversation. “We soon became good friends.”

Chester and Johnstone stayed in touch throughout the years, and two decades after they first met, Johnstone asked Chester a life-changing question: Would he be willing to sit in at the piano and sing Elton’s parts at a rehearsal?

“It was a wild honor for me, and I knew I had to make good of the ask,” said Chester.

Elton John with Adam and his family

To prepare for the job, Chester spent weeks listening to Elton’s album “Captain Fantastic and the Brown Dirt Cowboy Studio,” since he was going to be playing the entire album on its anniversary.

I felt like I was in training like Rocky Balboa,” said Chester.

His hard work paid off: the rehearsals went well. Then, Elton agreed to bring Chester to Boston and New York not only to rehearse with everyone there, but to perform onstage with a small choir as well.

That led to even more opportunities.

“In 2007, I got to arrange and conduct for Elton at his 60th birthday concert at Madison Square Garden,” said Chester. “Since then, there have been so many amazing gigs over the past 18 years.”

Chester has earned the name SUR Elton John, which means “Surrogate Elton,” playing off of the singer’s official title, Sir Elton John. Last November, he played piano and sang backups for Elton at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles on the song “Don’t Go Breaking My Heart.” Elton was at the front of the stage, singing with Kiki Dee. This summer, he’ll be playing again with Elton at the Glastonbury Festival in England.

“I refresh Elton himself on how he plays certain songs on the piano that he hasn't played in decades, while arranging and conducting choirs for him whenever he needs,” said Chester. “I'm truly grateful every time I see him and the band.”

Encouraged by a Rabbi

Chester has always loved performing. When he was four, he began playing the piano, and by seven, he was writing original songs.

He would go to synagogue for the High Holidays with his family, and he specifically remembers singing Jewish songs with his father.

Those haunting melodies are forever ingrained in my memories,” he said.

Chester attended a Hebrew day school in Miami Beach, where he grew up, and a rabbi encouraged him to go into music.

Adam Chester playing piano at Dodger Stadium

The head rabbi there, whom the school is now named after, knew my voice quite well from the shows I had been in there,” he said. “He suggested I become a cantor.”

While Chester didn’t pursue that path, he did write a song for Hanukkah called, “Eight Days and Nights” The emotional song, which sounds like a Jewish Elton John tune, is about making the world a better place during a tough time.

Chester sings, “And isn’t it relieving, that after all the grieving, we still have the faith to carry on? Yes, I believe every day’s a miracle. Celebrate the miracle. Let the candle burn for eight days and nights.”

The song came about after Chester was speaking with his DJ friend Mark Wallengren, formerly at LA's KOST 103.5FM, who said that people would call the station during the holidays and ask why they never played Hanukkah songs. Wallengren and his program director, Stella Prado Kuipers, asked Chester to write one. Once he released it, KOST as well as SiriusXM played it every year during the holiday season.

When Chester’s not writing songs and playing with Elton, he spends time with his wife and children and manages a piano store in his neighborhood in Los Angeles. He also plays piano twice a month at the famous Sunset Marquis Hotel's Bar 1200 in Hollywood. His latest project is a song that will appear on a unique musical collection about DNA.

I was asked to write a piece of music based on a child's DNA with a rare disease,” he said. “The ‘mutation’ in the DNA that causes the disease is musically represented by a ‘wrong note.’ I composed a piece I called ‘Wish Out of Water’ that will see its release very soon on a collection of other DNA mutated songs composed by various artists.”

For Chester, making music isn’t just a career – it’s engrained in his very being.

It's always been that way,” he said. “When I play the piano, it's not just notes that I'm playing. It's the feeling those notes bring up that I am able to translate to the keys.”

He continued, “I seriously just want to continue writing and playing music, travel with my wife and kids, and continue to make some people happy with my music.”