Elton John “Surprised” By Rush Limbaugh Wedding Invitation

Openly-gay music icon Sir Elton John was just as surprised as the rest of us that he was invited to provide the entertainment at Rush Limbaugh’s wedding, according to his partner.

The right wing radio king took his fourth trip down the aisle June 5, marrying Kathryn Rogers — a woman half his age — in a ceremony at The Breakers Hotel in Palm Beach. The service was attended by conservative celebs such as Karl Rove, Fred Thompson, Rudy Giuliani and Sean Hannity.

The “Rocket Man” legend was so surprised to receive an invitation to perform at controversial host’s nups he initially thought the offer was a joke. However, when John discovered the invite was for real, he decided to embrace the opportunity to “build bridges” Limbaugh, the star’s partner, David Furnish, tells PEOPLE.com.

“To put it in Elton’s exact words, when he got the invitation, he was ‘a little surprised.’ And then, when it turned out to be a genuinely sincere invitation, Elton said, ‘Life is about building bridges, not walls. (It was an opportunity) to go where people wouldn’t expect me to go. And maybe if I can make a great impression, people might change their perspectives on life.’”

Limbaugh has kept the reasons for hiring John under wraps. But according to his biographer, Zev Chafets, the staunch conservative — widely-known for his right-wing and traditionalist views — is shockingly liberal when it comes to matters of the heart.

“On some social issues, like abortion, Limbaugh is a conventional conservative,” Chafets, the author of Rush Limbaugh: An Army of One, wrote on The Wall Street Journal’s Speakeasy blog this week. “On others he sounds a lot like Barack Obama. In an interview last summer he told me that he regards homosexuality as most likely determined by biology, considers other people’s sex lives to be none of his business and supports gay civil unions.”