Goodbye Yellow Brick Road?
Elton John recently admitted that his newest album left him confronting his mortality – and that he “just broke down for 45 minutes” while recording it with Brandi Carlile.
“I wrote a song at the end of the album and I just get the lyrics, Bernie Taupin’s lyrics,” John, 78, explained on the Tuesday, March 25, episode of the “Smartless” podcast.
“I’m writing the verse, like, ‘Oh, this is really pretty,’” he continued. “And then I get to the chorus and of course it’s about my death.”
“When you get to my age, which is near 100, you think, ‘How much time have I got left?’”
The “Rocket Man” singer then admitted that he really “started thinking about mortality” and ultimately got emotional for nearly an hour after his thoughts turned to his husband, David Furnish, 62, and their two sons, Zachary, 14, and Elijah, 12.
“You’ve got children, you’ve got a wonderful husband, you just think about mortality,” he said during the podcast. “And so when I got to the chorus, I just broke down for 45 minutes – and it’s all on film.”
Carlile, 43, described John’s breakdown as both “really human” and “embarrassing.”
“I want everybody to see it because it’s really human, like deeply flawed and embarrassing,” Carlile told podcast hosts Jason Bateman, Sean Hayes, and Will Arnett.
“And the kind of s–t that you do when you forget that there is a camera on is what’s really interesting,” she added.
A video of John’s “tantrum” made the rounds in February, with the Grammy winner calling himself “a nightmare” during their studio session.
The “Tiny Dancer” singer’s new collaborative album with Carlile is titled “Who Believes in Angels?” and the record is scheduled to be released on April 4.
John, who officially confirmed he would never tour again last June, previously described the album as “one of the toughest I’ve ever made” and “one of the greatest musical experiences of my life.”
The recording sessions were filmed for the critically acclaimed musical documentary “Elton John: Never Too Late” – which was released last year.
The song “Never Too Late,” which will be released on “Who Believes in Angels?” next month, was also recently nominated for Best Original Song at the 97th Academy Awards.
Meanwhile, John also told the “Smartless” podcast about his days starting out as a musician back in the 1960s – and his eventual decision to go solo.
“I never imagined myself as a solo artist,” the “Goodbye Yellow Brick Road” hitmaker explained.
He added, “When I was in my group, Bluesology, I took the big risk of going up to Liberty Records saying, ‘I want to write songs, I’m so fed up with playing in a band that doesn’t want to go anywhere, and I can sing too.’”
John’s latest record and his podcast interview both come just months after the beloved musician revealed how he lost his eyesight after developing a serious infection.
“As some of you may know, I have had issues and now I have lost my sight,” he said in December during the premiere of his production “The Devil Wears Prada: The Musical.”
“I haven’t been able to see the performance,” the singer quipped, “but I have enjoyed listening to it.”
Content shared from nypost.com.