Elton John surprised at Rush Limbaugh's wedding invite

(By Jeffrey Slonim, PEOPLE.com) - Add Elton John to those who were not expecting him to get an invite to Rush Limbaugh's wedding.

"To put it in Elton's exact words, when he got the invitation, he was 'a little surprised,' " his partner David Furnish told PEOPLE on Sunday at the Tony Awards in New York. "And then, when it turned out to be a genuinely sincere invitation ... Elton said, 'Life is about building bridges, not walls.' "

John also saw it as another opportunity, in his words, "to go where people wouldn't expect me to go."

"And maybe if I can make a great impression," Furnish quoted him as saying, "people might change their perspectives on life."