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Elton John

Appearances

Fresh Air

Someone Once Told Elton John He Would Never Be A Pop Star

1013.604

Well, of course. Liberace came to England and there was a columnist in the Daily Mirror who said he was gay, a guy called Cassandra. Well, that was his pseudonym. And Liberace sued and won. And he said, I'm not gay. And he won the libel case. When I was young and I watched the Liberace show or any show that came from America that was musical – It was pure magic.

Fresh Air

Someone Once Told Elton John He Would Never Be A Pop Star

1035.937

The Americans did things on a bigger scale. Liberace, because he played the piano, I was very much interested in. He was a good pianist, but he was not a great pianist. And I was enchanted by him and I loved him. You know, his dialogue with the audience was very, very funny, especially when he did live shows. And I did get to meet him.

Fresh Air

Someone Once Told Elton John He Would Never Be A Pop Star

1057.751

I did the Royal Variety Show with him in London at the London Palladium. And I planned my two big outfits and I thought, well, Liberace, I've got to do something special. So I had two fabulous lurex suits made in red, white and blue. And they were hanging up, you know, very proudly in the dressing room. And then Lee, who he liked to be called Liberace, Lee walked in with trunk after trunk.

Fresh Air

Someone Once Told Elton John He Would Never Be A Pop Star

1079.927

He wore that outfit with the light bulbs in it. And, you know, so my attempt to, you know, go one up on Liberace failed absolutely miserably. But he was so charming and so lovely and very, very funny and very, very intelligent. And he was a huge influence on me. It's like he was being who he was. He wasn't publicly out. He didn't give a flying monkeys about what he was wearing.

Fresh Air

Someone Once Told Elton John He Would Never Be A Pop Star

1102.934

He just went for it. And that was who he was. And that, of course, influenced me when I started wearing the clothes and, you know, subconsciously must have, you know, if you're stuck at a piano and you're not a lead guitarist or lead vocalist, you're kind of at a nine foot plank and you have to. do something about it.

Fresh Air

Someone Once Told Elton John He Would Never Be A Pop Star

1121.094

So my thing was to leap on the piano, do handstand and wear clothes that would attract attention to me because that's the focus for two and a half hours or two hours. I'm not walking around the stage. I'm not moving. So he gave me that idea probably subconsciously because before then I'd never seen anyone dressed like that.

Fresh Air

Someone Once Told Elton John He Would Never Be A Pop Star

1156.146

Well, all my stuff has been done with firmly tongue-in-cheek. I wasn't a heartthrob David Bowie or Mick Jagger or Rod Stewart in those days. I was Elton at the piano. And, you know, I just had to turn the attention onto something comedic or even more outrageous than it was. Of course, with those kind of things, as is my want in everything I do, I took it too far. And it, you know, became…

Fresh Air

Someone Once Told Elton John He Would Never Be A Pop Star

1186.274

In the beginning, it was natural. I didn't think about it. It was like, oh, yeah, let's do this, let's do that. And then it became like, oh, what am I going to do next? And that's the dangerous side. It's like you think about it too much. In the end, it became tired and it became too much. And it became less fun. I think a lot of the critics, the costumes...

Fresh Air

Someone Once Told Elton John He Would Never Be A Pop Star

1205.347

put people off me they weren't listening to the music as more or less looking at what I was wearing I was singing great songs but I was also wearing you know a giant chicken outfit at the time and being helped on stage by Mr. Universe on his shoulders so you know anything like that it was you know it was all down to me it was my fault if anything you know if they didn't like what I was wearing then I couldn't really do much about it but you know I had to take responsibility for it

Fresh Air

Someone Once Told Elton John He Would Never Be A Pop Star

1249.808

It lights up. You can show films on it. You can show video. It was a suggestion from Yamaha, who made my piano, said, you know, we're coming up with an idea for you. And I You know, the first show I did in Las Vegas was a red piano. I had a red piano. And then we had to think, well, if we're going to go back, what can we do?

Fresh Air

Someone Once Told Elton John He Would Never Be A Pop Star

1269.945

And they came up with this idea before we ever thought of going back to Vegas. And I thought, well, if I go back to Vegas, this sounds like a great idea. You know, and it's, I introduced, the piano has a name. She's named Blossom after Blossom Deary.

Fresh Air

Someone Once Told Elton John He Would Never Be A Pop Star

151.479

Well, he said, they were grabbing the microphone. He said, if you break my microphone, you'll pay me 50 pounds. And I'm going, oh, John, that's not the way to handle this situation.

Fresh Air

Someone Once Told Elton John He Would Never Be A Pop Star

167.305

Because I got to this point where after Rocketman came out, which was my first really big hit, about two years into my career after your song. I got screaming girls at some of my shows. And I just thought that was rather funny because I wasn't David Bowie and I wasn't Rod Stewart and I wasn't Mark Bolan and I wasn't Mick Jagger. But I was at the piano and I got screaming girls.

Fresh Air

Someone Once Told Elton John He Would Never Be A Pop Star

191.918

Luckily, they couldn't reach my microphone because I was playing the piano. You accepted it and you loved it and you just went along with it. I think John didn't know how to cope with it. He just really didn't know how to cope. For all his life, he'd been playing in clubs, playing the blues, and suddenly girls, young girls were screaming at him.

Fresh Air

Someone Once Told Elton John He Would Never Be A Pop Star

207.578

And I just think, you know, he just never knew how to handle that.

Fresh Air

Someone Once Told Elton John He Would Never Be A Pop Star

231.018

Well, I didn't worry about it. It's like, well, I'm not interested and you're not. You're interested, but I'm not. But it was very sweet and they were very – I've still got a lot of – most of my audience is a lot of women as well, a lot of girls and a lot of females. And I'm very grateful for that.

Fresh Air

Someone Once Told Elton John He Would Never Be A Pop Star

275.142

I hadn't. And I just thought, oh, my God. I remember where it was at the club. It was in Carnaby Street. And that's when Bernie and I came home that night and we were so drunk and I told Linda, the girl I was going to marry, that I wasn't going to marry her anymore because I'd never had a sexual experience. I didn't know anything about sex. I'd never had a sexual experience at all.

Fresh Air

Someone Once Told Elton John He Would Never Be A Pop Star

297.264

I didn't have a sex till I was 23, which was portrayed in Rocketman. That was the first time. I didn't know anything about it. I presumed that you had to marry a girl because that was the way things were done. But I did... I didn't have sexual feelings for Bernie. I just had great love for Bernie. And I wanted to cuddle him and I wanted to give him a hug. I didn't want to go to bed with him.

Fresh Air

Someone Once Told Elton John He Would Never Be A Pop Star

318.961

But I did love him more than I did love Linda. And when he said that, I suddenly start thinking... Oh, because I had no one in my family who was gay. I had no yardstick to measure my gayness on. Except I worked for Long John Baldy for so long. And he was so, when I look back now, he was so outrageous. And I didn't know anything, didn't think he was gay. I didn't know about it. I was so naive.

Fresh Air

Someone Once Told Elton John He Would Never Be A Pop Star

340.823

So that night, thank God, the epiphany came that night. And I went home and, you know, dodged the bullet, as it were. But I still didn't have sex for a couple of years, two or three years later.

Fresh Air

Someone Once Told Elton John He Would Never Be A Pop Star

361.311

Well, you know, a lot of rock musicians go into rock music to pull girls. That's one of the big attractions. Well, we can play on stage and we can flirt with the girls and then we can go backstage and then we can have them, we can take them home and we can have sex with them. That was never my motive. I was just wanting to play music. Sex wasn't anything I was thinking about.

Fresh Air

Someone Once Told Elton John He Would Never Be A Pop Star

379.388

I was just wanting to play music. I was so obsessed with music, nothing entered my head apart from that.

Fresh Air

Someone Once Told Elton John He Would Never Be A Pop Star

415.131

Well, I was getting fed up with Long John Baldy playing to cabaret people who were eating chicken and chips and not caring about the music. And I thought, I didn't become a musician for this. Maybe I'd written a couple of songs for Bluesology that were recorded, and the lyrics were awful, but I wrote the melody. And this audition for Liberty Records was just, I thought...

Fresh Air

Someone Once Told Elton John He Would Never Be A Pop Star

434.053

Maybe I can be a songwriter. I had no intentions of being an Elton John superstar or whatever. I just thought maybe I can write music. I went to the audition. I said, I do sing, but I don't sing much. But I can write songs, but I'm a terrible lyricist. And hence, he gave me the envelope, which was, you know, could have been any envelope.

Fresh Air

Someone Once Told Elton John He Would Never Be A Pop Star

452.837

And it was Bernie's lyrics, which I read on the train going home. I didn't have any... ambitions at that time to become someone who made their own records and became a star, I just thought, well, maybe if I leave the band, I can become a songwriter. And that would be fun. And I'm still in the music business. So it was just part of the process of the serendipity that happened to me that...

Fresh Air

Someone Once Told Elton John He Would Never Be A Pop Star

475.47

If I hadn't have gone to that meeting, I wouldn't be sitting here talking to you now. And then you look back and think, how did I have the courage to go to that meeting when I was chubby, I had no self-esteem, I was shy, but anything was better than playing to people who were eating chicken and chips while you were playing.

Fresh Air

Someone Once Told Elton John He Would Never Be A Pop Star

508.223

It was because in my teenage years, I wasn't allowed to wear anything fashionable at all. No pointy-toed shoes, no chiseled-toed shoes, no fashionable coats. So when I actually left home… And started, you know, I think that was the leap, leaving home and beginning to earn my own wage and keeping myself and supporting myself. But I decided to live my teenage years in my 20s.

Fresh Air

Someone Once Told Elton John He Would Never Be A Pop Star

536.153

And, you know, I made up for lost time pretty quickly. And I just, I went hell for leather for it. And I just had such a great time because I was cocooned in boring clothes.

Fresh Air

Someone Once Told Elton John He Would Never Be A Pop Star

600.145

That was my mother who did that. My father and my mother should never have gotten married. They got married very quickly after the war, which a lot of people did. They were totally unsuited to each other. My dad was in the Air Force and was a way a lot. My mom worked very, very hard in shops and also later in life at the Royal Air Force as well.

Fresh Air

Someone Once Told Elton John He Would Never Be A Pop Star

623.911

And I was the product of – I don't know how many times they must have had sex. I don't think they must have had sex very often but I was the product of their marriage. The 50s was an incredibly tough time to grow up in. It was after the war. It was very conservative.

Fresh Air

Someone Once Told Elton John He Would Never Be A Pop Star

637.706

So if you were in a marriage and you wanted to get out of it, it was very tough to get out of it because divorce was frowned on socially. I can remember my Uncle Red coming when my parents were thinking of getting divorced saying, you can't get divorced. What will the next door neighbors say? That was what it was like. I knew nothing about sex, nothing. I was seen and not heard.

Fresh Air

Someone Once Told Elton John He Would Never Be A Pop Star

656.57

Children were seen and not heard. I loved – I had the – wonderful upbringing with my grandmother. And my mother could be so much fun, but she was mercurial. And they were like oil and water, the two of them. The nice thing about it is that they got, when they did get divorced and my mother found Fred and my dad found Edna, is that they found the love of their lives. And that I'm very happy about.

Fresh Air

Someone Once Told Elton John He Would Never Be A Pop Star

679.461

But the bit in between was hard to take because I dreaded my dad coming home because it would be a row immediately. And then I would retreat to my room You know, look at my books, look at my records, look at my toys. And funnily enough, I mean, I just I found love of inanimate objects because inanimate objects, which I kept in pristine condition, couldn't harm me or talk back to me.

Fresh Air

Someone Once Told Elton John He Would Never Be A Pop Star

707.456

So I always loved collecting things.

Fresh Air

Someone Once Told Elton John He Would Never Be A Pop Star

712.085

Books, records, toys, dinky toys. But mostly records and books, which I never lent out to anybody because I still have my books.

Fresh Air

Someone Once Told Elton John He Would Never Be A Pop Star

726.87

Yeah, I'm an addict. It was the instigation of being an addict. But it was because I felt safe with the objects and not with my parents. And so...

Fresh Air

Someone Once Told Elton John He Would Never Be A Pop Star

738.695

And it gave me a determination, you know, with my dad not wanting me to be anything to do with rock and roll when Elvis Presley came in, that I would be determined to prove to him that my mother who took my side and said, yeah, you should do what he does and let him do the music because he loves it. And was very supportive. My dad, of course, hated it.

Fresh Air

Someone Once Told Elton John He Would Never Be A Pop Star

759.843

And I've been trying to prove to my dad that it's been okay ever since. So it gave me the determination to make something of myself. And it's just prolonged in my life. He's been dead for over 30 years. And I'm still kind of doing that. It's like, well, dad, I hope you're proud now. And it's crazy.

Fresh Air

Someone Once Told Elton John He Would Never Be A Pop Star

781.533

He was a trumpet player in a band, yeah.

Fresh Air

Someone Once Told Elton John He Would Never Be A Pop Star

794.701

I know. He just considered... There was an expression in him called wide boy, which meant crook. He said, if I became a... Elton is... My mother read the letter to me. It's in a thing called Tantrums. Elton would become a wide boy if he carried... Rock and roll is just... There's no future. He wanted... A solid future for me in a bank or in the Air Force or doing a proper job.

Fresh Air

Someone Once Told Elton John He Would Never Be A Pop Star

816.316

You know, it was all down. You grew up in the 50s. You knew what it was like. When Elvis came, it was a revolution. It was a social revolution. And people were horrified. And people in England were horrified who had, you know, conservative opinions of what was good and what was bad. If I became a rock and roller, my life would fall apart. To a certain extent, he was right.

Fresh Air

Someone Once Told Elton John He Would Never Be A Pop Star

854.148

No, not really. He never came to my shows. He never wrote a letter saying, well done.

Fresh Air

Someone Once Told Elton John He Would Never Be A Pop Star

861.935

No, no, no. He had four other sons that he had with his – married to Edna. He was a tactile father to them and loving. He just – you know, I've done so much therapy and rehab. And I just look back on it and saying this was an unfortunate meeting of two people who should never have met each other.

Fresh Air

Someone Once Told Elton John He Would Never Be A Pop Star

890.227

I think he was a musical snob, yeah.

Fresh Air

Someone Once Told Elton John He Would Never Be A Pop Star

893.31

And, you know, I grew up – I'm so grateful for – I mean, I always had music in the house, Terry. I grew up with, you know, Nat King Cole, Frank Sinatra, George Shearing. This is great music. All great music. I mean, all from America, obviously, but great music. When I was like nine years old, I think I got Songs for Swinging Lovers as my Christmas present by Frank Sinatra.

Fresh Air

Someone Once Told Elton John He Would Never Be A Pop Star

915.371

And I loved George Shearing. He was a jazz player, pianist, who was blind, who came from Pinner, where I came from. And when I first became successful in the early 70s, I went to New York and I phoned him. And I said, thank you. I grew up with your music. And it was fantastic. And I was only six or seven years old when I heard your music. But I loved it.

Fresh Air

Someone Once Told Elton John He Would Never Be A Pop Star

935.931

And it made me want to play the piano like you, although I couldn't play as well as you. But I was very grateful to the music I had. But when Elvis Presley came knocking on the door and little Richard and Jerry Lewis, who started jumping on the piano, then that was what I wanted to do.

SmartLess

"Elton John & Brandi Carlile"

1016.669

Yeah, I'm not there yet.

SmartLess

"Elton John & Brandi Carlile"

1019.934

I did. I really just did. And she's creative as hell. That's what I love. No kidding.

SmartLess

"Elton John & Brandi Carlile"

1049.328

And a huge ball gown and a tiara and huge high heels.

SmartLess

"Elton John & Brandi Carlile"

1113.775

Really? Yeah, but it was very easy. There wasn't anything I didn't like. All the ten songs that we chose were the obvious songs. And the rest, they're okay. The ten that we had were fantastic. So no, I mean, no, I would never say that. I mean, all the songs she gave to me were amazing.

SmartLess

"Elton John & Brandi Carlile"

1149.159

There's no more touring for me, and I'm very happy about that.

SmartLess

"Elton John & Brandi Carlile"

1166.231

Yeah, we've made a video for this, and it's really great. David LaChapelle did the video. He did the album sleeve. Yeah, of course we'll do videos, and of course we'll do some TVs, and we may even play on a TV show. I love that. And Sean, how's your piano playing coming along?

SmartLess

"Elton John & Brandi Carlile"

1185.736

Yeah, he won a Tony.

SmartLess

"Elton John & Brandi Carlile"

1239.297

I used to go around to Sean's house in Hancock Park and used to play the piano there. It was fantastic.

SmartLess

"Elton John & Brandi Carlile"

1244.56

It is. He's still there.

SmartLess

"Elton John & Brandi Carlile"

1298.906

Bosendorfer, that's the best piano. Yeah. Apart from Yamaha. Because you've got the extra notes down the end of it.

SmartLess

"Elton John & Brandi Carlile"

1305.329

Extra notes? Yeah. Really? Yeah.

SmartLess

"Elton John & Brandi Carlile"

1316.376

Bosendorfer. German. Oh, you have a lovely Bosendorfer. Yeah. If I had a dollar. And this one has extra secret keys. This one has three extra keys. It's longer. Of course we do.

SmartLess

"Elton John & Brandi Carlile"

1349.822

Dodger Stadium would be my favorite when she sang Don't Let the Song Go Down on Me because Lady Gaga had done it before and it was incredible and she wasn't available, so I asked Brian to do it. She was cheaper. Much cheaper. Much cheaper. Cheaper, but she destroyed the song.

SmartLess

"Elton John & Brandi Carlile"

1365.835

It was incredible.

SmartLess

"Elton John & Brandi Carlile"

1379.831

Not many people can say that, can they?

SmartLess

"Elton John & Brandi Carlile"

1390.874

Yes, He'll Have to Go, yeah. And Joni sang Love Potion No. 9 and Summertime. No way. Yes. And music got Joni back together again, as well as her physio. But this girl here to my left, who used to instigate Joni jams, where people used to come up, you had to play, you all had to sing in front of Joni Mitchell, which is terrifying. That's a lot.

SmartLess

"Elton John & Brandi Carlile"

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But it was one of the greatest things, and you'd have Herbie Hancock up there, you'd have Chaka Khan, you'd have Bonnie Raitt, you'd have... You. No.

SmartLess

"Elton John & Brandi Carlile"

1429.378

Paul McCartney, yeah.

SmartLess

"Elton John & Brandi Carlile"

1439.886

Well, an incredible record. But she did it. I was sitting next to Joni at Disney Hall when she did it. And it was faultless. And I just said, you know, balls of steel, it's ridiculous. And without a teleprompter. I would never have done that without a teleprompter. And it was the most incredibly... brave and courageous thing to do. And then she did it at Carnegie Hall as well. It was phenomenal.

SmartLess

"Elton John & Brandi Carlile"

1462.019

And Joni couldn't have been happier. She resuscitated Joni.

SmartLess

"Elton John & Brandi Carlile"

1510.63

It's hard to keep all the lies together, yeah. Could you imagine? I get requests from the audience, can you play Piano Man? And I go, wrong guy. No way. Wrong guy. No way you do not. Someone asked me to play Piano Man once, yeah.

SmartLess

"Elton John & Brandi Carlile"

1527.698

I played Piano Man with Billy many, many, many, many times. Security, security. And I couldn't play it on my own. Security. Oh my God. That is crazy.

SmartLess

"Elton John & Brandi Carlile"

1558.911

There's a song at the end of the album which is my solo song. Brandy has a solo song at the end of the side one about her daughter, her eldest daughter growing up and leaving. Tell her about it. It's just a beautiful song.

SmartLess

"Elton John & Brandi Carlile"

1624.911

God, that sounds like a long marriage. I wrote a song at the end of the album, and I just get the lyrics, and I'm just two Bernice Taubin lyrics called When This Old World Is Done With Me. And so I'm writing the verse, like, oh, this is really pretty. And then I get to the chorus, and of course it's about my death.

SmartLess

"Elton John & Brandi Carlile"

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And when you get to my age, which is near 100, you think, how much time have I got left? And you've got children, you've got a wonderful husband. You just think about mortality. And so when I got to the chorus, I just broke down for 45 minutes. And it all unfilmed. Cried hard. Oh, wow.

SmartLess

"Elton John & Brandi Carlile"

1707.636

And he went into a real moment of... And she came over and she said, don't worry, you've got at least another six months.

SmartLess

"Elton John & Brandi Carlile"

1758.176

And this is, believe me, this is one of my biggest accomplishments. Yeah, well, we cannot wait to listen to it.

SmartLess

"Elton John & Brandi Carlile"

1814.689

It's great. I don't listen to my stuff very often. I don't listen to the radio very often. But when you're in an elevator and you think, what the fuck is that? And it's Daniel, you feel very proud. Yeah.

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"Elton John & Brandi Carlile"

1826.693

You know, I don't listen to my stuff, but I'm very proud of what we've written, and I love to hear it, as long as it's not being played by myself. But it's, yeah, I've done so much in my life, and yeah, there's so much more to do. And she's inspired me to go ahead with this record, and I think this is the best record I've made in 40 years, so there you go. Oh, wow. I love that.

SmartLess

"Elton John & Brandi Carlile"

1880.302

No, over than that.

SmartLess

"Elton John & Brandi Carlile"

1883.444

My goodness. Because I was in Vegas.

SmartLess

"Elton John & Brandi Carlile"

1896.411

We have a house in Nice in the south of France, and Brian, Catherine, and the girls come down every summer, and we have the time of our lives.

SmartLess

"Elton John & Brandi Carlile"

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Kids love each other. Kids really do. I mean, my boys are a little older than Brandy's girls, but my boys are really good with children. And Zachary's not here at the moment. He's at school, but Elijah's here. And he just loves playing with the girls. There's no problem with that. They get on like a house on fire. And Brandy's girls, Brandy and Catherine's girls, I should say, are absolute angels.

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"Elton John & Brandi Carlile"

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I mean, they're just beautiful girls. Yeah, I love that.

SmartLess

"Elton John & Brandi Carlile"

2021.448

No, there was lots of songs on that album. Japanese Hands and stuff like that.

SmartLess

"Elton John & Brandi Carlile"

2026.533

I love all those songs. There were lots of deep cuts. I mean, I've had a lot of hit singles, but probably the best songs are the deep cuts.

SmartLess

"Elton John & Brandi Carlile"

2034.06

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

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"Elton John & Brandi Carlile"

2140.2

I never imagined myself as a solo artist. When I was in my group Bluesology, 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. And so the guy, as you know, because it's an old story, gave me the envelope with Burner's lyrics in it.

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"Elton John & Brandi Carlile"

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And then when we wrote songs, I had to go out and nothing was happening with me. I had to go out and play them live, so I had to form a band. And I really didn't have any visions of being Elton John's superstar. It just happened very, very quickly. And so it was so exciting, because I came to America, and there was Neil Diamond introducing me. There was Brian Wilson. There was Linda Ronstadt.

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"Elton John & Brandi Carlile"

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There was Leon Russell. all those kind of people that were my heroes. And suddenly, I was there. I mean, it took me a couple of years to establish myself all over America. But it was like, I was a kid in a candy store. I never really visualized Elton John being a big star. It all happened by accident, really. It really happened by accident, which was lovely. That's a good question.

SmartLess

"Elton John & Brandi Carlile"

349.75

It is in conjunction with promoting the album. So, yeah, that's why we're talking to you guys. We're promoting and flouting. This is so cool for us, you guys. This is really cool. Thank you. Huge fans. I'd like to say hello to Sean, who I haven't seen for years.

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"Elton John & Brandi Carlile"

367.365

Sean, do you owe him money?

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"Elton John & Brandi Carlile"

372.569

Yeah, he was a rent boy when I knew him.

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"Elton John & Brandi Carlile"

540.591

Well... I've been a fan of Brandy and a friend of Brandy's for over 20 years, and her family. Wow. And I've always wanted to record with her. And I had the idea of making the album when the final tour stopped in Europe. I'd already booked the studio in Los Angeles for October 23. And I wanted to desperately make a record with her. I've been a fan of hers for years. She's been a fan of mine.

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"Elton John & Brandi Carlile"

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We included Bernie Taupin in the process, who's been my longtime lyricist, and Andrew Watt, the producer. So there were four of us going into the studio with nothing but self-doubt and hesitation. And... Always for a good album. And when I got to the studio, I was really tired. I was grumpy. I was fairly lethargic.

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"Elton John & Brandi Carlile"

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And for the first few days, it was a hard experience because I was not in a good place. I had so much self-doubt, wondering whether I could shift this album into the way I wanted it to be. And eventually after they put, we filmed every song being written, every take being recorded. So my behavior is there for all to see. And after the first five days, it suddenly clicked.

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"Elton John & Brandi Carlile"

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And people were really supportive of me and my behavior. And they taught me around. And I felt in a good place. And then we just roared. We wrote 14 songs in three. three weeks, and ten weeks for which we made the album. And we started with nothing. So it was probably one of the greatest creative experiences I've ever had. And she is a machine. She is so incredibly inspiring.

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"Elton John & Brandi Carlile"

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I mean, her vocals, she never does a bad vocal. Her phrasing, which I had to harmonize to, was so difficult for me that I actually tore the lyric up and told her to fuck off. He did, he did.

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"Elton John & Brandi Carlile"

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You just were like, I'm not doing that? No. I'm not doing that? Yeah, yeah. And then after I tore it up, we had to get it stuck back together again because I was being such an idiot.

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"Elton John & Brandi Carlile"

669.412

No, you go there with some things written sometimes. Brandy does that. She goes in, and I sometimes go into the studio with her. I've had a couple of ideas, but mostly recently I've just written the studio.

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"Elton John & Brandi Carlile"

687.984

It's ten tracks, so we did like an album. Side one finishes with Brandy's solo song. Side two finishes with my solo song. Oh, that's nice. Let Brandy talk a bit.

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"Elton John & Brandi Carlile"

837.899

Right. She's so inspiring, and she's so... You know, I was inspired by her... I've always been inspired by her voice and her writing, but her musicianship. And I think we both inspired each other. That was the whole point of doing the record, to have what we have as artists and then, you know, put it on the other person. And she's quick. I mean, she's really quick.

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"Elton John & Brandi Carlile"

861.379

And she does a vocal in like one take. It's amazing.

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"Elton John & Brandi Carlile"

917.768

And years ago, I bought her an electric guitar because I wanted to push her and nudge her to play electric and get out there and rock a little more. And there's a great side of her that I could see that wasn't coming out. And she, you know, she's great. She loves all sorts of music. And she's broken.

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"Elton John & Brandi Carlile"

931.553

Listen, she sang Joni Mitchell's entire blue album at Disney Hall without a teleprompter, which takes balls of fucking steel, I tell you. And so she's got big, big balls, I tell you. New title for the album. The unfortunate thing is she breaks wind a lot, but that's okay.

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"Elton John & Brandi Carlile"

950.482

Believe me. Yeah, yeah.

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"Elton John & Brandi Carlile"

968.031

She wrote me a letter, and I was aware of her music. I was in Las Vegas doing one of my residences, and she said, would you ever consider playing on a song of mine? And I wrote back and said, or phoned her. I put her phone number, and I said, hey, yeah, if you can come to Vegas, because I'm stuck here, we can do something together. And she came.

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"Elton John & Brandi Carlile"

986.801

and before i even sat at the piano i fell in love with her it was like it was destined to be a friendship that you know it's lasted for years and years and years and gotten better um and it was i love that it was just happenstance or whatever it was um serendipity yeah you know what i have to say the when i met you brandy too i just immediately fell in love with