Elton John and Bernie Taupin pose a classic conundrum:

It’s sad, so sad
It’s a sad, sad situation
And it’s getting more and more absurd
It’s sad, so sad
Why can’t we talk it over
Oh it seems to me
That sorry seems to be the hardest word

Elton must have done something in the recent past that requires an apology.  He wants his partner to “make you love” him.  What has he “got to do to be heard”?

So his entreaties are not being heard.  Why?  Elton has a credibility problem.  He wants love whether or not he is truly sorry.  If he gets a positive response from saying “sorry” whether he means it or not, he’ll just say it.  It is, of course, cheap talk.

To make Elton’s apology credible, it has got to be  hard or costly to say sorry. There has to be some loss of face, some blow to pride from saying sorry.  But to make “sorry” truly credible, the cost of saying sorry has to be low if Elton is truly sorry and high if he’s not sorry at all.  So, if Elton is having a hard time saying sorry, maybe he’s not really sorry?