I’m in wonder, total awe, when I hear something different and new.”Īfter returning to London, an album started to emerge as he picked up more recording gigs: a track with Gorillaz, a strident Metallica cover with Miley Cyrus, piano and vocal harmonies for Lil Nas X recorded at Abbey Road. “Billie Eilish, at 15 she made a record, Lorde at 16 – I was still at school at 16.
Photograph: David Dagley/REX/ShutterstockĮven if he’s clearly thrilled to be in the charts again, this isn’t a cynical bid for relevance – he talks about new music with the zeal of a teenage stan trying to convince a doubtful parent.
Songwriting doesn’t have to be the same old form of songwriting.” I write songs from start to finish, I’m old-fashioned these people take bits of melodies and make a collage. “Whether he’ll release it or not, I don’t know, but it was fascinating to see the way he works.
“I went in the studio and wrote something with the Weeknd when I was there,” he reveals. Holed up in Los Angeles when the pandemic began, he says it was lovely to spend time with his sons and husband, but his feet were clearly itchy: soon enough he was four doors down the road at the home studio of pop star Charlie Puth, and the following day he was on Zoom, adding vocals and piano to a track by Texas group Surfaces. I’ve got the enthusiasm of an 18-year-old, and enthusiasm keeps me going.”Įven through a laptop screen, John has a buoyancy and a nose for fun. “I hate it when people knock rap and hip-hop – when you actually go in the studio and watch Young Thug in front of a microphone, it’s an incredible thing.” He’d had dinner with Lipa, who duets with him on their No 1 single Cold Heart, a few nights before he rings up Olly Alexander of Years & Years, who covered Pet Shop Boys’ It’s a Sin with him, “a couple of times a fortnight. Oil paintings of 19th-century figures flank him in the background. “Watching Young Thug freestyle was just amazing!” he enthuses over a video call, self-isolating the day before his operation, dressed in collared, lapelled pyjamas over a rugby top. One song pairs John with country singer Jimmie Allen over a drum’n’bass beat another is interspersed with raps from Young Thug and Nicki Minaj. His enormously enjoyable and varied new album, The Lockdown Sessions, may feature a range of boomer-pleasing names, such as Eddie Vedder, Glen Campbell and two A-list Stevies (Wonder and Nicks), but there are also plenty of pop artists that could feasibly incite a TikTok dance craze: Dua Lipa, Lil Nas X, Rina Sawayama. The 74-year-old certainly has his frailties – “my left hip is the hip of a two-year-old, and my right hip is the hip of a 92-year-old” – but is youthful in other ways. A good illustration of Elton John in 2021 is how, last week, he scored the eighth UK No 1 single of his career and also had his right hip replaced.
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