Elton John goes to Vegas

Elton John has inked a monster three-year deal to perform 75 shows at Las Vegas' Caesars Palace beginning in February. “I cannot do this show anywhere else the world except here," the sequin-friendly singer said at a gas press conference Tuesday. "It's back to costume changes and Velcro." The deal, in the works for months, had been pegged by Billboard as worth upwards of $54 million, but John played coy when asked how much he was making. "Let's just say, I'm very well paid," he cracked.. The Rocket Man will perform with his band five times a week for five weeks a year at the Palace's Colosseum, the specially designed venue where Celine Dion currently holds forth. John's show, titled The Red Piano, will not affect Dion's, who is locked into a three-year, $100 million contract. Elton will begin his first series of performances February 13-22, while Dion is on vacation.

The Red Piano, billed in a press release as "a distinctive show [blending] Elton's breathtaking music with vibrant visual imagery," will be designed and directed by photographer David LaChappelle. "The wild and wacky days are here again," said LaChappelle. Elton, 56, has been keeping plenty busy. Aside from his humongous garage sale, he's been busy working on two musicals--a London version of Billy Elliott to open in 2004 and a Broadway adaptation of Anne Rice's The Vampire Lestat--and is also providing music for a new Fox TV show produced by ex-Hardy Boy Shaun Cassidy.