Elton John and Jack Black squared up to one another in a lively promotional clip for this weekend’s episode of Saturday Night Live.
The legendary British musician, 78, and comedian and actor Black, 55, appeared tense as they introduced themselves along with US singer-songwriter Brandi Carlile and SNL castmember Heidi Gardner.
“I’m Jack Black, and I’ll be hosting SNL this week with musical guests Brandi Carlile and Elton… Elton John.”
The irritable “Rocket Man” singer then responded, “Hi Black”, which evidently irked the School of Rock star.
“Elton, what did I say?” he shot back then, as he attempted to continue, was interrupted by John who yelled over him.
“No!” Black shouted back, while Gardner tried to restrain him. “OK, that’s it. Hold me back, Brandi, hold me back.”
“Calm down,” Carlile pleaded, as Black declared, with a reference to his 2006 comedy film: “I’m gonna go Nacho Libre on his ass.”
Black’s new film A Minecraft Movie is out now in cinemas, coinciding with the release of John and Carlile’s new collaborative album, Who Believes in Angels?.
“The album's direct confrontation with ageing and death serves to intensify these artists' joyful, companionable celebration of life,” The Independent’s album critic Helen Brown wrote in her four-star review of Who Believes in Angels?. “Outsized, old-school, dad-rockin' fun.”
A Minecraft Movie has fared less well with critics. In a two-star review, Clarisse Loughrey wrote that Black delivers his lines “in the desperate tenor of a clown at an under-attended children’s birthday party”.
“As an adaptation, it’s flawed from the ground up: replacing Minecraft’s pixelated cast with flesh-and-blood actors is roughly as weird as shooting an entire LEGO film by asking real people to hold imaginary cups in their hands,” she said.
In a previous attempt at an introduction for this weekend’s SNL episode, a gushing Gardner said it was “crazy” to be sharing a stage with John, Carlile and Black: “I am very overwhelmed.”
“Just take a deep breath, Heidi,” Black reassured her. “We’re totally normal people.”
“Minus our fame and money,” Carlile interjected. “And immeasurable musical talent,” Black agreed.
“I’m also a knight,” John said.
“Thanks, I feel a lot better,” Gardner said.
Saturday Night Live airs this Saturday (5 April) on NBC.
In a recent interview with Zane Lowe for Apple Music 1, John explained that Carlile had saved him from falling into a creative funk when they first began working on the album together.
“If I had just made another Elton John record, I would've killed myself,” he said. “I needed her, I needed her talent, her energy, her humour, and her brilliant lyrics. I've got two of the greatest lyric writers in the world. Bernie Taupin and Brandi Carlile. The lyrics in front of me.
“If you can't write great songs for those then... That's my great talent, to be able to interpret those beautiful lyrics quickly. When we got going, it was like, whoosh, like an express train.”
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