‘He smashed his iPad and headphones. My lyrics got torn up’: inside Elton John and Brandi Carlile’s explosive duets album
Retire quietly? The idea filled John with horror. Instead, he and Carlile made his best album in decades. They talk tantrums, mortality – and being tactful with TrumpBy the time Elton John retired from touring in 2023, everyone knew his story. It followed a memoir and a biopic, which cemented the Elton lore: how in 1967 jobbing musician Reg Dwight was given an envelope of Bernie Taupin’s lyrics, forging the greatest songwriting partnership since Lennon and McCartney, a baroque new identity, a rampant hit rate of era-defining albums and the commensurate cocaine addiction. Then came sobriety, an emphatic commitment to funding HIV and Aids treatment, finding love with David Furnish; The Lion King, Candle in the Wind, one of the UK’s first gay marriages, two sons. Last year, the documentary Never Too Late told his story again. Just last month, his greatest hits collection, Diamonds, finally hit UK No 1 after 374 weeks. No one could ask for a more enduring brand, a more deserved curtain call. John has different ideas.“I’m 77. If I don’t push myself, Laura, what’s the point in carrying on?” he says, via video call in early January. “Just be ‘Elton John’ for the rest of my life? Which would have filled me with absolute fucking horror.” Continue reading...
Retire quietly? The idea filled John with horror. Instead, he and Carlile made his best album in decades. They talk tantrums, mortality – and being tactful with Trump
By the time Elton John retired from touring in 2023, everyone knew his story. It followed a memoir and a biopic, which cemented the Elton lore: how in 1967 jobbing musician Reg Dwight was given an envelope of Bernie Taupin’s lyrics, forging the greatest songwriting partnership since Lennon and McCartney, a baroque new identity, a rampant hit rate of era-defining albums and the commensurate cocaine addiction. Then came sobriety, an emphatic commitment to funding HIV and Aids treatment, finding love with David Furnish; The Lion King, Candle in the Wind, one of the UK’s first gay marriages, two sons. Last year, the documentary Never Too Late told his story again. Just last month, his greatest hits collection, Diamonds, finally hit UK No 1 after 374 weeks. No one could ask for a more enduring brand, a more deserved curtain call. John has different ideas.
“I’m 77. If I don’t push myself, Laura, what’s the point in carrying on?” he says, via video call in early January. “Just be ‘Elton John’ for the rest of my life? Which would have filled me with absolute fucking horror.” Continue reading...
