While Elton John’s touring days may be over, with the star’s final world tour ending in July of 2023, it seems he just can’t stop having hits.
His recent collabs with Britney Spears (effectively bringing her out of retirement after five years), Dua Lipa and Ed Sheeran being modern evidence of his ongoing and enduring talent. In fact, his Merry Christmas collab with Sheeran is at number eight in the UK as we write.
And after 50 years in the music business it’s safe to say that the star has pretty much seen every award going, and now he can add Time’s Icon of the Year Award to his trophies. And, in a new interview with the famous brand he reveals a few more insights into his working methods and how he’s helping out a few of today’s stars along the way.
On board we see evidence and discussion of John’s famous temper. “David [Furnish, John’s husband] can tell you that my fuse is very short, and the worst thing about my temper is that David is very rational about things and he’ll explain,” says John. “And I’ll get even madder about it.”
“I will flare up if I’m tired, if I’m exhausted, if I’m overwhelmed,” John explains. “I don’t like having that temperament, but it’s all usually done and dusted within five or 10 minutes.” But, it appears there is an upside to his impatience. John famously works quickly and reveals that he writes very quickly.
His working relationship with lyricist Bernie Taupin is, of course, legendary but what’s previously been underwraps is the way in which Taupin’s output greatly out measures his own. Armed with sheaves of lyrics John will begin to write, and if a tune doesn’t come to the lyrics he’s looking at, he simply turns the page and tries another, giving each lyric only an hour to prove itself and the magic to happen.
“I know people think, ‘Oh, God, he doesn’t work that hard,’” says John. “But it’s really effortless. If I get a lyric and I look at it, the song comes straight out.”
Indeed, Taupin wrote the classic Your Song over breakfast when he was 19 and living with John’s family. Having handed over the lyrics Taupin estimates that John took half an hour to write music for it. “We have a telepathy between the two of us,” says John. “He seems to know what I want, and I seem to know what he wants. It’s really unusual and it’s very spooky.”
The interview and Time accolade are also a neat lead-up to the release of Elton John: Never Too Late, a new documentary detailing his rise to fame and early US tours and contrasting that with his final tour last year.
In the new documentary John explains the origins of Tiny Dancer. “As soon as you see the word ballerina, you know it’s not going to be fast, it’s got to be gentle,” he explains, taking his lead from the lyrics to create one of his biggest hits.
Elsewhere in the interview there’s a ringing endorsement from Britney Spears, who names John as her favourite artist and Dua Lipa who says that “singing alongside one of my musical heroes was a no-brainer. His music has been able to soundtrack my life from the very beginning.”
And there’s more compliments and advice for Chappell Roan. “Elton’s songs are perfectly, masterfully written songs, and that’s what connects them to millions, billions of people,” she says, explaining that John has helped her learn to trust her instincts.
“The advice he gave me was that the songs will come,” says Roan. He told her that after his first album blew up, he had no songs lined up. “He thought that he wouldn’t have the ideas, but they were absolutely there. He just had to let them come to him. So that’s a good reminder.”
Elton John: Never Too Late is on Disney+ from 13 December.
