Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
BIG INTERVIEW
A No.1 single with Dua Lupa from The Lockdown Sessions album alongside some talented young pop stars shows the Rocket Man hasn’t lost his Zoom
The Rocket Man has got plenty of gas left in the tank as he hits the mid-70s on the speedometer of life. Elton John just scored his first number one hit single in 16 years and his latest album The Lockdown Sessions – out today – also looks set to skyrocket up the charts.
I’ve had countless famous faces pop up on my Zoom account doing these weekly music interviews during the pandemic, but it was still a surreal experience to see Elton John himself on my computer screen.
“I’ve never recorded via Zoom before, so that was a little different,” Elton said, as he stood in front of a grand piano at the Metropolis Studios in London.
“But if the person you’re working with, the producer or the artist, knows exactly what they want, and tells you what they want, then it really makes things so much easier.”
Elton has certainly made up for lost time when it comes to using Zoom. During the pandemic he appeared on the records of Rina Sawayam, Gorillaz, Lil Nas X and with Miley Cyrus on the Metallic tribute album. He also did a cover of the Pet Shop Boys It’s A Sin with Olly Alexander.
And all these tracks, along with many other new songs, make up a total of 16 collaborations on The Lockdown Sessions.
“Sometimes, when I’m playing on something, I can be a little too Eltonish,” he revealed.
“And they say, ‘Can you cut back a little bit on that, you’re playing on my record, you’re not playing on your record’.”
Talk about “Don’t Shoot Me I’m Only The Piano Player”!
He enthusiastically added, “And so it’s really helpful and it’s really interesting to see what they want rather than what I would have played. I end up playing something different.”
This music icon felt like he had literally “come full circle” when he was recording some of the new tracks at Abbey Road.
Over half a century earlier a young up-and-coming musician named Reginald Kenneth Dwight – to give Sir Elton Hercules John his proper name before he legally switched it in 1972 – had worked as a session player there.
The then 21-year-old had been hired to play piano on the smash hit He Ain’t Heavy He’s My Brother in 1969.
Speaking of which, it sounds like there was a big brotherly love vibe going on during the making of this album.
There’s some mega names on the 16 tracks – Dua Lipa, Brandi Carlile, Miley Cyrus, Eddie Vedder, Young Thug, Stevie Nicks, Stevie Wonder, the late Glen Campbell, and Grammy award winning producer Watt.
“I loved doing it so much,” he enthused. “So, out of this has come a lot of friendships and a lot of magic and a lot of happiness.
“When I did the Lil Nas X track and Glenn Campbell, I was in Studio 2 at Abbey Road. 54 years prior to that I was in the same studio playing on The Hollies’ track. In the early days I was a session musician, before I became Elton.
“So, I thought I’ve come full circle here and I’m really loving what I’m doing.”
Elton – who had his first number one UK hit single since 2005 with Dua Lipa on the Pnua remix of Cold Heart which reworks his hits Sacrifice, Rocket Man and Kiss The Bride – hadn’t even planned to record an album during the lockdown.
The seed was only planted when Elton was chewing the fat with singersongwriter Charlie Puth at an LA restaurant in March 2020.
“I’d never met him before and he lived only four doors away from me in LA,” Elton recalled.
“And he said, ‘I’ve got a studio if you feel like coming up while you’re here and writing something’.”
The end result was the hit song After All, which was co-written with Charlie and rapper Jacob Kasher.
And the next day Elton marched right down to his music publisher’s house, who “lives three doors away”, to work on the tune Learn To Fly with the Texan duo Surfaces via Zoom.
Elton was flying by the seat of his pants because it was the “first thing” he’d “ever done via Zoom”. But he was soon hooked.
After arriving back in England, Damon Albarn asked Elton to do a song with Gorillaz and Rina Sawayama wanted him to do the duet Chosen Family. He also featured on the Miley Cyrus cover of Metallica’s Nothing Else Matters.
Elton was on something of a roll. He then did some more collaborations; namely, It’s A Sin with Olly Alexander for the Brits Award, the Lil Nas X tune One of Me for her debut album, and I’m Not Going To Miss You featuring country star Glen Campbell, who died in 2017.
Elton thought to himself, “I’ve got the germ of an album here.”
When they got to the Pnau track, which was just Elton singing on his own, he thought, “I don’t want to sing the Rocket Man. We’ve got to get someone else to sing that.”
Over dinner at an LA restaurant Elton’s manager said to Dua Lipa, “Listen to the track and see if you like it. And play it by the pool very loudly and then give us a call.”
Elton said: “And she did play it by the pool very loudly and she called us and said, ‘I’m in, I want to do it’.
“So, gradually I got an album coming together. So, I thought, ‘I’m going to continue’.”
He jetted back over to LA and, with the help of producer and musician Andrew Watts, did more tunes with Brandi Carlisle, Eddie Vedder, Stevie Wonder, Young Thug and Nicki Minaj and Stevie Nicks.
“And then SG Lewis had finished the track that I’d written with him in the studio, so I had 16 tracks,” Elton said
“And I did Jimmie
Allen in LA as well, a bit of vocal on that track.
“So, voila, out of nothing… It’s all Charlie Puth’s fault, basically. So, there you go.”
Surprisingly, Elton had never recorded a song with Stevie Nicks before now.
“She’s one of the greatest voices. Fleetwood Mac are so lucky they’ve got two female vocalists, Christie Mcvie and
If you’re at my age and you can still be learning from other musicians – that’s the greatest gift of all. You can never stop learning as a musician.
Stevie, that are two of the greatest voices in rock ‘n roll,” Elton said. “She was on a bucket list and it’s just great to be able to work with people that you know are great but you’ve never had the chance to work with before.” Elton would rather look forward than backwards. There’s no Sleeping with the Past when it to music.
“I’ve been lucky enough to play on a Bob Dylan song, to do a John Lennon (number). I played on the George Harrison record. I’ve played with Leon Russell. I’ve sung with Leonard Cohen, I’ve sung with Aretha Franklin, I’ve sung with Stevie Wonder, Ray Charles,” he said.
“I’ve known all the great artists and I’ve been lucky enough to work with most of them.
“But I’m more interested now in singing with the younger people and I think that’s because I get such a kick out of it.”
But one exception to this unwritten rule was when he reworked a Glenn Campbell tune I’m Not Going to Miss You.
“It’s an amazing song. It’s the last song he ever wrote. This album came out ten years ago and it was his last album he ever made,” he said.
“And when it came out I commented on the song and his family said, ‘Thank you for doing that’.
“And so when they decided to recreate the album ten years on, with people doing duets with him, they asked me specifically to do that song.
“And I was so honoured that they asked me, because it is such a beautiful lyric about the heartbreak of dementia and Alzheimer’s.
“He was a gentleman, a brilliant musician, a brilliant singer, a great voice. Like a James Taylor … ”
Elton likes having his ear to the ground when it comes to keeping an eye on new acts.
“I’ve done a radio show for six years in a row now on Apple. And I’ve created and cultivated friendships with young musicians, and that’s really spurred me on,” he admitted.
“Rina Sawayama, for example, who I loved and championed her album Sawayama, I became friends with her because I rang her up and I interviewed her on my show.
“It excites me when I hear somecomes thing new by somebody new: a Billie Eilish or a Lorde or a Khalid or Berwyn.
“Billie Eilish just astonished me when I played that first record by her. And I played Mabel’s first record in 2015.
“It’s important because someone like me, I can give her a little bit of exposure.
“But Billie Eilish has cultivated her own exposure by making great records and becoming the star she is now.
“And so it’s wonderful to watch the little flower grow into a beautiful tree.
“And when I love a record by someone new, I interview them on the show, or I phone them up.
“It’s important for me to offer a hand of friendship and offer a hand of authenticity to what they’re doing.
“Because when I first came to America, Neil Diamond, the Beach Boys, Leon Russell, The Band, George Harrison, all got in touch with me. And Leon Russell took me on tour.
“And it made me feel very happy that they liked my music, and it validated what I did.
“So, you must always try and pass those thoughts on to other young musicians, because it helps them.”
Elton got a kick out of taking directions from Rina Sawayama on Zoom. It reminded him of working with The Hollies at Abbey Road.
“And so she gives me directions: ‘Can you play that a little bit softer?’ ‘Can you do this?’ It’s her record,” he explained.
“And, as I say, people know what they want…” he said.
“It was so much fun working with her because I admire her so much. She’s an amazing talent and all these new artists that I work with are incredible.
“Sam Lewis, Jimmie Allen, Surfaces – they’re all young artists but they know what they want. They have a specific idea and that is so great, to have that when you’re such a young age.
“It’s great being thrown in at the deep end because you don’t know what to expect…
“Because of my years of experience of playing on all these records years and years ago, I could adapt to it quite easily.”
But not everybody on the album is a spring chicken.
“Damon Albarn isn’t a young artist by any means, he’s been around for years, but I feel very close to him because he’s a free spirit and I’m a bit of a free spirit. I love what he does,” Elton said about the Gorillaz and Blur music wiz.
“I learn something from each artist that I work with that I wouldn’t normally have learnt.
“From Stevie Nicks, from Stevie Wonder, from Sam Lewis to Lil Nas X – I learnt something from each of them.
“And if you’re at my age and you can still be learning from other musicians – that’s the greatest gift of all. You can never stop learning as a musician.
“If you shut your mind off and say, ‘I’ve done it all now, I can do everything now, I don’t need to hear anything else’ – then for me that’s the dead end.
“I’m more excited now about music than I’ve ever been.
“Again, it’s a thrill. And at my age, getting a new thrill from music is really important. It keeps you going.”
The one and only Rocket Man is still Captain Fantastic up there in the Empty Sky and down below on the Yellow Brick Road. Long may he continue to keep all the Tiny Dancers happy with such great new songs.
As the great man himself once sang, “I’m still standing.”
Elton John’s new album The Lockdown Sessions is out now via EMI Universal.