this is where it all started for me and where I am now it's such a thing of beauty Our Lives leading us to each other at this point is a hard thing to really even wrap my head around I've Loved Elton since I was 11 years old I knew about the trador when I was 12 even though I'd never even seen an airplane to be sitting here right now is kind of next to Impossible I think it's never too late it's never too late
I don't want to be the one to say it but sure my 12-year-old self Could See Me Now sitting next to Alton John and Brandy Carlile two of the greatest songwriters of our lifetime whove taken their mutual love and respect and
creative chemistry and turned it into a beautiful album and a great reason to gather at the legendary trador venue where Alton John and Brandy carlile's Futures were forever changed it was a wonderful afternoon oh look at us a what
a place smell the detergent is the place yeah smells the same as it did in 1970 to me that's right they just TR to clean clean up after you 55 years ago you tore this place up yeah 55 years ago um this coming August so yes it has many memories I took the boys in here for the documentary that David did and it seems so small and you know it's like how did this happen py feel about on this stage i' I have many members seeing Dr John
here um with John ven but we had to leave to the Dr John concert cuz John was playing Dr John's organ with his elbow it's time time to leave I think it's time to leave the ejection era uh you played in 2007 and you shared a really sweet thought not to betray trust but there was a big motivating factor be behind you wanting to finish that tour here right and to play here yeah it had been my dream to play here since I was a young teenager
because I knew that this was elton's Big Gig in in the states and um so just seeing it you know just getting to see the Marquee was just you know pictures I still have the pictures of of the Marquee I think it's a really important observation at this point because people will read about this album and ultimately be drawn to this album and assume that you're fans of each other and that's they're correct in that but
they may not know how deep this goes for you right back to your childhood how important Alton has been not just as a musical influence but as a North star that's absolutely and he's been so generous to entertain the
uh of a of a fan girl you know of a fantasist but I just think it really is proof that extraordinary things can happen to a person in their life she's come so far I mean we first met um she wrote me a letter saying you know I've been such a
huge fan of yours would you ever consider playing one of my tracks and I was in Vegas and I said sure if you come at Vegas I'll do it straight away so we went into the Palm studio and she soon as I met her I knew she was special and I knew that we'd be friends because there was something that just when it's Serendipity the the magic between us and so from that point on we did become friends um not just musically but on a
social level our family is very close um and it's one of the greatest things that's happened to me and to see her grow um you know and I like nudging her um CU I know what she can do I know what she has done but I know what she can do and she can do a lot lot more so a couple years ago I bought on electric guitar and I said come on girl you can play this um I bought to a Les Paul and she's started using it and on this album
she's just it's a perfect example of it's one of the reasons I wanted to make the albums cuz I needed her to push me yes um I knew she could just go along with anything she's that talented so I needed her to push me and I need Bernie to push me I needed Andrew to push me so all four of us pushed each other I nearly pushed them all out the door cuz I was in such a horrible mood when I started making this roord I was really
tired I was irritable the world was going crazy and for the first 3 or 4 days I gave everybody help and we filmed it all the whole thing was filmed so um there's a few embarrassing moments for me in that um but I don't mind because
in the end that energy and that that darkness that was going through me just pushed me and pushed me and pushed me and suddenly when we did the rose of laureno when we finished that it just like opened up we went through we went
through the wall with that one music did its job that's what it does I mean if you if if you are lucky enough to be able to have time and space and a dedication to pursue something in the Arts it acts as more than a result it's a process and a part of living your life and and I'm so grateful that you that you're sharing these candid moments because what I saw in those moments was was was not um anything remotely spoiled
going on I saw someone who wanted to achieve at a very high level and wasn't able to necessarily find their way through in that moment it felt like you were being too hard on yourself I scared I was very scared I wanted to make this album and I knew what I wanted it sound like but that's all very well um you've got to actually do it yeah I had a lot of fear which is great but I took it out on other people which is not so great
well you took it out on people that love you though and know you and you know we had our own inhibitions and we were expressing them in awkward ways too the way that you express yours is Mak some noise but there's something really that's quite a relief about seeing somebody act how they feel you know I think we we don't see that so much these days and so it was actually quite inspiring for me it really made me want
to show up for El and show up for myself what was going on with you when you started the record what were you feeling well I had all this existential um anxiety about whether or not like my the reason why I write songs you know is is Elton and Bernie whether or not like my heroes I could keep up with them first of all because elton's very quick he likes to do things quickly yeah and he does do things quickly um flawlessly um
so I was worried I wouldn't be able to keep up and I was worried it wouldn't work that it just wouldn't click and then what would that say about my life's work you know so it just just felt um too important and I think that sum of elton's behavior it made me laugh and it made me take myself a little less seriously and we found we wound up like meeting in the middle of all this audacity and I think our friendship
really grew up in that few weeks where we got past some pleasantries I guess you could say yeah yeah yeah yeah get rid of any of the kind of perceived friendships that you know exist but in that environment they almost mean
nothing if the music isn't happening right like the friendship will happen outside of the room yeah we got to get these songs out yeah well we went in with nothing and we came out 3 weeks later with the album I mean we literally
had nothing my anxiety and my frustration were because when I was singing harmonies I do a lot of harmonies she takes a lot of the leads on the record and so when I'm singing harmonies to her phrasing it's difficult because every artist has a different way of phrasing for example on um who believes in angels um if I had an easy life would I still choose you would I follow the same life same life and I I would go same KN same KN um and I would
go nuts and and luckily she was very patient and Andrew was incredible now he said it's same knife and she was saying same knife and I was still see same knife and and then the lyrics got turned up and on the floor oh it's incredible because I did this had the same thing with John lenon many years ago with whatever a guest used of the night it's the hardest thing to put your voice on someone who's already done it um but it just
challenged me and the thing I love about this record is it's a duet record and it's a proper duet record it's not she takes one line I take another um it's not don't go break in my heart these are songs that we we sing together um and I don't think there's been an album of harmonies between two people like this for me 30 or 40 years and never in your lifetime and this is what's so special about it is that to get to this point um
after such an incredible career already people understand if you're like I'm just going to do it my way to the end now I'm going to make records the way I want to make yeah yeah but lean into an environment to learn something new with somebody else and also what's what's what's amazing is that you're learning how how br's doing it but you are 100% going into Elton mode as well oh yeah yeah I like I've always said like I've
been singing with Elton my whole life he just didn't know it you know till till 10 or 20 years ago and it it's like I think with it's it's Elton John right so there's there's an Elton John vocal on every album that he makes and everybody sings to that they adhere to that they play to that it's like he's the north starf so you're right he didn't have to do this he didn't have to make himself a part of a group and go in and uh and
acquest to someone else's vocal so I can totally see why that would have been wildly well we we planned this album um I did glasbury and that was more or less the end of the tour we ended on the biggest high one could ever have we had the Dodger Stadium we had glenbury and then we had this album and I knew that I didn't want to make the same as Han of UB again and I knew that if we did do this album with Bernie and Andrew it
would be a challenge but I wanted the album to move forward um because you know I'm always looking forward you know me you've known me for years I'm always trying to look forward and if I had just made another Elton John record I would have killed myself and I needed her I needed her Talent her energy her humor and her brilliant lyrics um you know I've got two of the greatest lyric writers in the world Bernie toin and uh
Brandy col and the lyrics in front of me if you can't write great songs to those then and that's my great talent to be able to interpret those beautiful lyrics quickly and when we got going it was like whoh like an Express TR I just want to talk about the the spirit of friendship that's on this record because you've had a great band with you for a long time that when you're on stage they got you back David's got you back your
kids have got you back when it comes to you as a writer in the studio with very little few exceptions it's you yeah and it's all on you how different was this experience knowing that you were getting to make music with people in a collective environment it was a much different experience not the fact of just writing the songs but you know when you got four people's opinions um and you want to make sure that you respect
their opinions and you want to make sure that you got all the essence of lyrics right for the album um it's a responsibility I had a responsibility not just to Lord it as Elon John I had the um the chance to make a combined record with four incredible talented people Andrew wat probably one of the best producers in the world without question who is so great for me he pushes me he makes me laugh he's got more energy than anyone I mean I got a
lot of energy but Andrew is like a firecracker is Brandy is you know it's just very calm and burn is you know he's been around me long enough to know me inside out my responsibility was to make sure that the record sounded like all four of us and it does yeah I'm so proud of this record because it achieved everything that I wanted to you know you go in the studio you sometimes you want something to happen but it doesn't
happen but with every single lyric with every single performance on this record I would not change a thing well here's how we all know that the other three people and the band that assembled to play The W all stars have got your back because we don't really get a sense that his Elon until about a minute 40 in when you show up on the piano and about 20 seconds later when you start singing together and the whole beginning right
Rose the rose of lauro is almost like we got you we're here we're playing for you we're throwing everything at this right like we want you to know that everyone's on their aame from the second this album starts I want to talk about that song I want to talk about the making of that song the intro of that song the size of that song the fact that it's that intro which was obviously done after we did the song but we've been talked about
lauro she was so symphonic and Eli's Coming is the song that's based on yeah yeah which is an Express train of a song from Eli in the 13th confession so that was the kind of template um because it was going to Roar
and roar like she does um and and she actually inhabited me when I think when I wrote that song it's so L night I she was inside me um and the fact is she F me that night and say you won't believe this when we did the track today it was
her birthday it just poured out of me that song yeah yeah I remember when he was first writing it and I was standing around with my uh pencil and paper just in all of the chords he was coming up with and trying to remember certain melodic morsels that I wanted us to repeat and stuff like that and he just goes and then he goes Eli's coming and it was like I knew at that point that he was inhabiting laureno ethos and that we
were going to make a special song you know lauro is one of those artists that thankfully her music continues to be discovered and to resonate um long after she passed away in in in her life probably never experienced the level of success that that um you know I think fans would have hoped for her um taken to soon strange story about that too in terms of like the way she passed away her mother passed away same age there's
a lot going on 49 same cancer yeah a lot going on and and so it makes me think about the idea of um the courage it takes for artists to to decide to show up at all and what part of being remembered actually plays or starts to play a role in your experience well that's the whole soul is is is really due to Bernie phy he came up with that lyric I didn't say go and write a song about laureno No he as soon as he said
that lyric in front of me I knew exactly what it had going to sound like I knew what it was going to be like and I want how great a song about L who I idolized we idolized he and I idolized her and so it was pretty damn easy to write because it just I don't know I just I thought I want to write something she would love a tribute to her who's been ignored bit like when I did the Le Russell album you've been forgotten about for years
and it's so wonderful to be able to pay tribute to people that you love so much um and the second track also on the album which we'll come to but when it goes at the end it's just like she's screaming on the end of Eli's coming it's just like yeah um it was fantastic I mean I just I got Goosebump seat about it it's an incredible way to start the album um it's a reminder that art creates a sort of version of immortality so it's not
the sort kind of first TR you think Elon John and Bry got start the album they probably think I would be dinging like no it's not what the hell is that supposed to be I think that I kind of want to hear where that goes uh I uh I think everyone has got the message if I may be so bold that you're now in the midst of the worst retirement ever um you know it was never about retirement was it it was never about retirement it was just coming off the
road spending time with David and our boys yeah I was never retirement from music you know me I love music so much in new music do my radio shows on Apple um and I love making music This Album should have come out last year but because of my eye infection we had to put it back a year so we've had to kind of not listen to it for a while and then re-energize ourselves so um but the first three tracks on the album I mean
they just it's ridiculous it's incredible this get to Little Richard I mean that that the importance that that image of Little Richard's Bible Fascinate people don't know the story you know the the two and fro between between Free Will and God's will the idea of sort of like you know who am I really in all of this you collaborated with him what was that experience like working with little or oh it was incredible I mean the fact is we did a
song called the power in Atlanta for my Duets record and he when we were recording he didn't know that you could stop and do it again and just drop in he thought you had to do it all from the beginning wow yeah he was you know it was for me one of the greatest days of my life and he was so sweet and it's one of my favorite tracks that I've ever done because I got to play with little rget and sing with little ret um and
when people ask me what would you like to play from your U I say play that one cuz it's my you know it's Little Richard um did you allow yourself some time in the moment looking back on it to to to be that kid to to say to yourself like brandy has done I'm sure multiple times I'm here in the room with this person that power of manifestation of being a fan to a friend to a collaborator is real well it's the same with like the
Leon record I mean I was in all yeah um and he was so ill but he he Roose the occasion so brilliant and it was like that working with her because it was the same experience um I was working with someone I love who I hadn't worked with before in a recording studio really um she did a track on but it was done track separately for the um the lockdown sessions so Little Richard was electric Laura I was electric she's
electric and so when you get that electricity flowing and Andrew wat has got more electricity flowing Bernie is kind of like the um he's Electric in his own quiet way Loda like a nuclear reactor came up with these first two lyrics of Lauren and then Little Richard's Bible it's like wow and so I knew exactly what to write for Little Richard's Bible I mean and the fact is which is no one knows but I put it down to just Chad Smith from the
chili pepp was a drummer on the album P Paladino was a bass player Josh was involved too right Josh Kling hofford did all the sence and Andrew played guitar and so did Brandy and I played the piano and so a little Rich Bible I put he just put high hat and I put the piano track down first cuz you couldn't wait to do it too much fun no it was just I just had it in my brain I've got to put it down yeah the solo as well at the end
and everything like that is all done in one t is that the closest you can get between being Alton John today and Alton John the kid listening to Little Richard learning and teaching how to play it was like just listen it's like when I first heard Tutti Frutti or The Girl Can't Help It um he was flowing through me laureno was flowing through me and he was flowing through me because I love both of those artist so much they gave
me so much as a as a performer and as a as a musician and as a songwriter um Little Richard was it was Winford atw first Little Richard jalie Lewis Leon Russell and Lauren and Leon Russell those are the five and I've been able to pay tribute to all of them swing for the fences Brandy this is a huge song and a moment for you to really stretch out into what you do which is write songs beautiful brilliant heartfelt songs more
often than not as saying something matters to you and therefore matters to people you're an unafraid writer I've said that to you before when it comes to making music fear does not play a ro and I really admire that about you a tough song to write probably a hard song to listen to because even when you wrote it things are worse yeah yeah the song is changing shape in real time yeah well I think that the where it sits in
the sequence which was an accident is serendipitous in its own way because you got songs about Lauren Nero and Little Richard who are sort of our queer predecessors right they sort of came before Elton and I in many ways and
weren't allowed really I think to fully walk through the world uh unabashedly as as gay people and then we've got this song that's kind of an Anthem of encouragement to lgbtq youth I think it's a really interesting way to follow
up the lives of those two icons that influenced us so much who but I think who deep down we wish could have walked through the world the way that we are getting to walk through the world now go through the wall bloody and bruised yeah so I love that we were able to take that encouragement and hopefully it can aggregate hopefully it can help those marginalized kids and those young people right now and they can look to me and
Elon and they can go yeah I'm going to be okay I'm going to be all right yeah because we got their back it's positive it's not a slow song it's it's like yeah again electricity is flowing through that song it's like be unafraid and I like using the sports analogies because like Freddy Mercury did you know because there's such a they really turn that Trope on its on itself and say swing for the fences you know it's it's really
cool to get to own those analogies well we allow everybody to be whoever they want to be for the most part in that environment in athletics and in sports where you're rooting for a team it's like well it's more important to me that the team wins than what your personal preferences of how you live your life it's really interesting how we give everyone a pass there yet when it comes to the Arts or living your life outside
of that it's like oh no no no no you're not doing it the way I want you to do it I think is the right way to do it right but it's that same Instinct of camaraderie and we're only forced to compete with each other if we really
look at it at the end of the day we do want each other to succeed look Aton and the way that he cultivates relationships with young people and by the way he always gets a lot of um he's known for finding Young Artists and calling them
encouraging them but he doesn't he just do that he's also honest you know he also says but I think your best work is ahead of you but has that come at a price for you to some degree personally away from all of the what you stand for is so important to all of us and to the world and it will go down in history as being a part of who you are and the spirit of the man Cal to who I am it's vital to who I am I cannot live without
new music I cannot live without it and what about the honesty it's taken to be able to plant your flag in the ground and help others on such a huge Global LEL yeah and it's so funny you know that everyone's saying oh things don't happen so quickly for people like Ry and Olivia Dean and look Sabrina Carpenter this is the sixth record the chapel Rome has dropped by Atlantic Records it's taken them five or
six years but stood them in the greatest stead because they're ready that's right and like I was I was playing with bology for years and then blacking Patty Lael and Major Lance and Billy Stewart and when I start when I came to the TR I was ready you're right I was totally ready I saw um tapon in London I was blown away she's ready she it's like yeah because all the Heartbreak and all the disappointments they make you stronger
and and I would try to relay that to people he said don't get too frustrated if the first couple um a not a lowly young is a prime example record is a monster record it's a fantastic record she's been going since I played her first strike in 1920 and 2020 1920 not 20 she's really old you know in fact she looks great she's her name should be L her name should be Lola old I think this is the moment when you just basically
Finally Revealed who you are which is your vampire is a vampire there's a few of us walking this earth right yeah I said she should be called Lola old but it's it's so great to see these people who tell don't too quickly don't happen to have the disappointments it makes you stronger it gives you backbone but I'm always there I say listen humble the great call me up do this do that but you're doing really great it's going so well you did it for
me when I was when I met an album you called me in Liverpool and told me I love your album don't stop haven't made a record since but I love the advice at the time never too late I would send him a ballad and he write back and say I love
it when you rock yeah like he wouldn't say like that that he would say I love it you know what me anyone can write a ballot we could both write ballots coming out about bums but it's rocking is hard it's hard it's
hard to have a great rock song it is well that's why that's why you've given us three real rock rock to start the album what you're saying about those artists specifically is so true though that's what's setting them apart is they've got this decade of trials and tribulations that is what it is that's the magic shabzi Teddy swims CR bin you know Chapel R all these artists are 10 Mia of what newtist are ready should
beeria I like that You' got a look at LLY Young's video to see it she's ready this is how that video is so strong so powerful shows she just who she is and she you can see her going yes yes she knows know and it's like Ray when you know she sang um your Oscar winning tears with the orchestra Inc like independent artist who had been dropped yeah there's so much more Talent around now than there has been so long age it's
astonishing in Britain we have so many wonderful girl singers CLEO SA nectar wood all these people um and it's just so wonderful to hear them and they may not happen first two or three albums noo is another one she just got a new album out last week it's so great to see them grow and you know I love it never too late as the song says it's never too late a really important Moment In This Album um because a chance I think really
um if you to lean into Alton's life into elton's story and how was that experience for you leaning into that into that particular song at that moment in time in relation to the project in the album well that's a special song because really it's a love song from him to himself and um Bernie has been such an influence on me in being able to interpret that and being able to kind of embody uh something about Elton that he
wants Elton to know and and Alton says those things when when he writes the song and he does so quickly that it's over time that it reveals itself to be so quintessentially him you know and when he's saying you know what's new in
the news who's hot where's the glory like you know what that phone call is like it's like Elton doesn't want to dwell in the past he doesn't want to dwell in himself he wants to talk about what's hot what's interesting you know
what's edgy and I love that that energy about him and I wanted him to sing those words about himself and he says off all the time you know like Brian Cox from succession I wanted to hear Alton say off and his song cuz it's it's something you say so often um and he's he's an Iron Man the things that he's survived to come through just in the last 5 years have they would have put me and you into a tail spin but but not him
he's too freight train like he's too forward moving and so I wanted to write a lyric after seeing that beautiful documentary that um was a message of encouragement about him coming from him I wanted it I pictured him in the mirror
almost you know which is very dramatic but I um didn't know if if he would write to it because his first time I ever put a lyric in front of Elton was that that song it may take some time between Bernie or brandy presenting you
with a lyric before you can truly identify what it means to you personally but you feel something what did you feel when you read those words uh well it made me laugh a bit and I knew exactly what he was about you're an Iron Man
baby off Heaven's Gate that's very me of cross in the film it says to hell with Heaven's Gate um it's very rarely that I get to write a song about myself yeah but it's such a beautiful lyric um I you know women I We All Fall In
Love sometimes and and kep him fantastic um that was for me one of the greatest moments of my life because it meant so much to me um because it was about burning iron it was just like so beautiful this is kind of similar um it's yes I I have come through a lot and uh the documentary was originally called goodbye yell Road and thank God it's not anymore this never too late when you wrote this song that's it it's going to
be that was David's idea my beautiful husband I said that's that's the song in the documentary and uh so yes it was done very quickly again you know we finished all these songs in three weeks and that's pretty damn good I we did 14 songs and 10 made the album It's a song that I think will get better and better the more you sing it like Mona lism at hats or something like that is that kind of song that I will enjoy singing If I
ever sang It's it's a song for me about where I've come from where I am now uh and where I am now is such a thing of beauty and I think the song is a thing of beauty it's not an angry song It's a Beautiful song um it's got all my idiosyncrasies in there um but it ends up in a really beautiful positive place which is where I am yeah with a beautiful family yeah well and that's the song wouldn't really that's a song
that wouldn't exist without our families you know just as the whole Arc of that film wouldn't exist without the without his family wrote that song in France when we were on holiday together with the fam it was just yeah I saw that documentary it's like first he you know influenced me as a child and I came out of the closet in the gay90s and I was 14 years old and now I'm a woman in my 40s with a wife and two children and he's
got a husband and two children and our families are close and he's influencing me in new ways and um that's why that song exists it's this Latter-Day Serenity that Elton experiences and that I get to watch well here's something that I've just recently experienced the moment when the people that you the most in that you love more than anything more than even yourself ultimately you do a good enough job where they decide to go
on and live their own life yeah you are experiencing am experiencing that as we speak and uh that's why that song um you without me when I heard it for the first time and you remember I was in pieces and uh in a very beautiful way the the the sad Pride the the weird combination of of absolute achievement and loss and equal measure is something I've never experienced before like this yeah elton's experiencing that too yeah that
moment when um you realize the identity is kicking in and you got to let go yeah powerful for you to write that powerful for you to be going through that to hear that powerful to listen to I may have written it a bit preemptively you know cuz my kids are still pretty littleit they're 10 and seven but I did see it happening to Elton and David and I was watching that happen and I was experiencing little Essences of it in my
own relationship with my oldest child particularly and kind of dreading it and looking forward to it at the same time that simultaneous pride and Devastation that comes with saying goodbye to that tiny little kid is I think something everybody can can relate to there are five tracks on uh each side of the album It's like a vinyl album we kind of said this is a proper album five tracks on side one five tracks on side two and
Brandy closes side one which starts off so rockus with the most beautiful gorgeous song that melts your heart and makes you cry and there there are two individual moments one that closes side side a and one that closes side B and
the first one is me and the the final one is that's right and the rest is a pure collaborative experience what is it about that distinction that intim I still love putting a record on I love the inition I love the commitment I know
what I love what is it for you it never ever gets old it reminds me when Bernie and I used to sit there um on the floor at thr court and listen to Eli in the 30th convention with our headphones on on the floor or Jonny Mitchell or Blood Sweat and Tears first record or bookends by S like G or the band music from Big Pig U big pink big pig big pink who's also good by the way it's yeah there is a record by big p and she's Irish yeah
um then it's good so he's on his but no it's for me it's that magic has never gone and that's why I love the fact that vinals come back in fact our album there's cassettes available and cassettes are coming back I don't know why cassettes are coming back but there you go he plugged it in and it blew up my one blew up as well the Cass play i b you oh yeah no nobody it works on battery okay okay okay yeah I I'm sorry
but side two side two title track you're just ticking all the boxes man all the Timeless boxes we got to have a title track you know we got to have a song that really stands up for the record as a whole and I want to talk about the band I want to talk about the room and the energy in the room on this because to me I feel like everyone's showing up on this song in a big big way yeah this the one well we recorded the album at
Sunset sound m in studio 3 which is where it's got the smallest control room and very big studio so were sitting there in the control literally like that um the band was Chad Smith from the Chili Peppers on drums Peno Paladino on bass yeah Brandy on guitar Andrew wat on guitar Me on piano and Josh cleof on the synthesiz in another Studio from the poam family yeah so that was the band Sunset sound is fall into bit basically
but it is the most wonderful room because why because it has history this was the room where Prince did Purple Rain has grit I mean hello and and you don't have to have a shiny new studio to make a great record sometimes the funkiest records come out of the most crap Studios um I mean stack Studios wasn't the biggest great Studio but what came out about Motown is exactly the same it's the music it's the musicians
live musicians playing good music and that's why this record sounds so good because those musicians that we used were amazing yeah and it's like this room and that history accumulates in these rooms feel it it the walls you can
feel that history and it's a lot of times it's the same instruments it's the same piano the wood ages and absorbs things and there's just a mysticism in these older places yeah when you both acknowledge that you've you've been
there is it the same or is it different to each of you when that when that lyric comes up of all the songs on the album The Lyric of who believes in angels is most about what the experience of making the album was like for for me and what I interpret it to have been like for Elton and the lyric I have been there in particular it it's a nod to like elden's journey in his life and even a little bit his sobriety cuz that's a phrase I I
remember my dad saying a lot when he uh would go into AA and get sober I've been there I've been there I'll be there again I've been there so I I put that in there but the concept of setting the pleasantries aside about taking off the tie and really exposing who we really are to each other in that way it was um I think what their album is about it was a it was a big moment and the mysticism of Our Lives leading us to each other at
this point is a hard thing to really even wrap my head around and so the concept of who believes in angels is just is just very much like can you believe this and it's also a great hook I mean I have been the I have been the well you doubled it it was just one lyric one time and he kept saying it and he made it a hook it was one time in the song it said I been there and then Elton repeated it until it was a a Cornerstone
it was such yeah because it's it's such an important those three words I've been there or I have been there forwards yeah it says a lot about everybody's life you have been there we've been there but look where we are now that's what we've been there but look where we're doing and look what we're doing now listen to this song and the powerfulness of this song The the power of the chorus of that song is quite incredible and it starts
off quite you know quite slowly with a piano bit and then it builds this incredible chorus it's it's a real statement song I think when we recorded it we went wow who's the rodeo queen you or me you yeah hello Miss Home Depot sitting over
there I do not go near horses Bernie is a rodo yeah he's a rodo queen Home Depot um River man yes oh God Elton you're on it Andrew W annoy the out of both of you in the very best possible then he what about my riff I go
later later later and I thought it was about the seventh song we recorded probably I don't know but actually it's a it's a great RI I loved it as soon as I heard it yeah I I wanted to write to it immediately but I had a hard time and I was just pushing Andrew off pushing Andrew off and you know he's such a sweetheart but in the end the end it turned out to be so great it's one of the best songs why did you have a hard
time writing to it um I don't know if I can write lyrics that way very easily you know it's like I'm not sure has Bernie ever written a lyric to music a little sometimes so seems to be the Hest word oh that's amazing yeah so I have I have to really dig for that it was Go Breaking My Heart oh really and so how did you present that music to him I just played it to him and said get me a little but he did it but yeah yeah it's
hard so I couldn't do it you do it like Bernie does you just write and then you apply as in when for Elton I did I did what I just took a Bernie was taking me to dinner we were having steaks in Beverly Hills and drinking whiskey sour and talking about Elton and talking about lyrics and Bernie was n nurturing me through the whole process and I learned so much from Bernie before I ever met him you know so there were
things about about writing for and about Elton that I was I had as a goal in mind you know and ber Bernie writes these Fantastical songs about comic book characters and other people that aren't in his life some are autobiographical
some are about Elton is sing about himself but some are about a cartoon character you know nobody knows what Gray Seal is about and I couldn't I couldn't dig and get that done no matter what I did and then Elton I had like
this one idea kicking around I was going to say who knows what the river knows I was like that's a nice line so I was going who knows what the river knows like walking around the studio and Elton one day gets finished with something on the piano and he goes what's how are we going to wrap up this Riverman song have you got that Riverman song yet and I said Riverman like Benny and the Jets like like the Riverman he's a character
and I was able to write the song but again it came from Elton and Bernie it was it was such a Seedling moment and uh the Riverman exists now I have to say that all four of us contributed to every song in some way or another the fact that four of us um in the studio we felt each other's Souls if that sounds so pretentious but it just filtered into everything it did yeah and Andrew of course he's just so easy to please well
what I love about Andrew and the way that he moves through these incredible opportunities to work with artists of all different age groups and generations but I can you can just tell he's living his best life is that he he brings the best of what we know out of you when your instinct might be to have that part of you behind because you're looking for the next thing I've done that thing the end of Riverman is a classic example of
that that is one of the most Alton John endings I could ever want on steroids Pinball Wizard just for a second and it's there and then it's gone but it's just enough to remind people listen I've worked with I've been lucky to work with G judon Chris Thomas um Tbone Beret Jean pagee Greg peny and Andrew is up there with all of them he's just I've never known anyone who can get so much out of me so quickly in the studio and I'm
quick but he's so infectious and he's he hear something you don't play that again play that again I can't imagine making another record oh Pat Leonard is another one from you word amazing um I've been blessed with those kind of people but Andrew I can't really enion making another record without Andrew your Chemistry with him is unbelievable it's the two of us are like yeah we're blocked here he doesn't get his feelings
hurt he's very and he's an explosive personality in himself Elton why are you so impatient his hands are almost like inverted he's just incredulous and you know Elton what are you doing you just tore up the lyrics does it ever get to a point where he's he's like do that thing and I've spoken to Ed about the simp Jam right do that question do that thing that we all love yeah that you haven't done for a while but it's going to work here yes he
does and and how does that make you feel as someone who is absolutely dedicated to progress and forward thinking and moving because an artist doesn't know what's best for them on you know the whole point of having a producer is that sometimes you can't see the wood for the trees and Andrew will hear something from my past work or something I've just played that I haven't played I forgotten or just brushed over and said no go back
there go back there he picks things up musically um and it's essential if you have a producer that's what they're there for and then he'll just cry with laugh beat the out of the piano go go yeah um I I do have the strongest left hand in the business I think yeah it's profound but Riverman really basically is it's a bit Fleetwood Macky I think and he loves he loves Fleetwood Mac but like but then the guitar s when it goes
to the guitar Sol is Alman brothers and I told him what to play he wrot every no I said play that when he did it I said now put a Harmony on it and so I did the guitar so he played it but I wrote it I remember yeah I said no you got to it's got to sound like the Brothers it in 1970 something or and it was that's how it sounds how much fun and at that point it was really fun we were Off to the Races and we got a live take of that I
remember we had a live take of that song do you remember this and we had just wrapped it and suddenly we realized that the door to where elton's piano is was left a jar so the piano was going to be in everything and it was this moment of like we knew that we either had to do it again or commit to it because there was there was going to be no overdubbing or we it and for re think ite feel the most sounding sely the record it's a very
live sounding album but yeah that one for sure thank God that's what I wanted uh a little light do I get that right yeah yeah little light let's go back to the beginning of the album I'm sitting in my house um Brand's staying at our house in the guest house um she comes in one morning and Israel and Gaza had happened and I've got the New York Times got the LA times and I'm going why are we making a record now when this
is going on in the world why does this matter and I was really angry and I was upset and it was just giving me another excuse to say let's go home um and she just took the newspapers he took my anger and mor said okay we'll write a song about changing the world and we we recorded it that day didn't we yeah and he was he was um you know he has just like it's described in the song he had his newspapers on his plate and there
were toast crumbs everywhere and I sat down and I was stunned uh myself from having read the news and we were having this conversation that was just Bleak you know and like that first verse of that song is almost Verbatim what he was saying which was like why are we doing this why am I doing any of this what how is our song in our album important at all today or yesterday or tomorrow the the way I've written the song and why
it's so important is that I'm not saying like oh let's let's do our job and let a little light into the world I'm not saying to be apathetic to it I'm not saying turn a blind eye I'm actually saying let it fully in let it shatter your heart wide open yes until the light comes through that pain so powerful it's it's a different thing than saying well our job is to lighten things up cuz that's not what our job is our job is to
break our hearts for everyone to see and then translate that to other people so that they can in turn break their hearts and let light into the world that's that Leonard Cohen concept you know and um I felt like that's my verse is what I wish I'd said to Elton but I I didn't have the the faculties at the moment only with my guitar would I have the faculties you know if people are going through hard times and the world is hard
artists whether they're visual artists whether they're writers or poets or whatever photographers or musicians they come through because they has to you cannot suppress all why do you think people who make policy try I think because it's such a powerful thing that it can rally people to feel all sorts of ways they can feel empathy toward a a demographic that they hated before they can come together in resistance they can
be uh soothed and and solved by those things out of a resistance maybe that's toxic so it can do things like make massive amounts of people act the same way and I think that that's a really dangerous thing you know like like high education I'm glad you said that I do think it comes from a place of fear I don't think it's a case of um of trivializing art I think it's fearing art and what it can do yeah it's B stying the human feeling and the soul
and the human the human spirit will always survive look at alitz look at the Holocaust look at the things people have been through all their lives um it will always survive because the human spirit is so strong and the best way of getting it out is through ART like the Jesse Eisenberg films you know and what was the film last year um a zone of Interest zone of Interest yeah those things the human spirits will always survive the
assol who try and suppress it one that song really hits home yeah for me too it's it's it's a it's a song about light but there's no apathy in it and also it's a bit tedic who I love and I thought oh that sounds like tomet how great I love tomet how how much I miss Tom Pet's Rec and how much I loved him and they were so freeing I love in the end that you start to sing in in falsetto which you haven't done in so
long no but I was sitting on the cactus he just starts going woohoo and I was like oh wow that's Elon John's falsetta we haven't heard that in a really long time and he just decided to do it yeah she dug it out of me she did I think I think look I think you dug it out of each other that's what's awesome about it is everybody is just pushing themselves in the best possible way um which brings us to uh one of the most beautiful and and and simple
Intimate Songs on the rord which is uh someone to belong to Y it's it's a song about David that she wrote and David's been waiting for about 30 something years for someone to write a song about him and finally happened but it's just so beautiful as soon as I read the lyric I just thought I could have make this bit Ely brother very simple just a beautiful simple love song yeah um again very easy to write because I love him so
much and if there's gold still gold in those Hills I owe it all to you yeah did David kind of save your life to something great David I got sober in um 1990 I met David in 1993 I don't think he saved my life but he made me have the life that I've always wanted he gave you the life he gave me the life that's really well I didn't have a life so I was still you know before I met David I was alone I had nobody um he was the
person that I'd been looking for All My Life um and our relationship has been fantastic it's had ups and downs because that's how relationships go he got sober too we had children which was the best idea which was his idea and he persuaded
me that I could be a good dad and everything that he's done for me he's the he's the sensor one in the relationship I'm the stupid one no I am the I'm the hot-headed idiot but he's so annoying because when we're
having an argument he's so calm I go and he's just saying well no listen to me listen to me go no you're so Canadian [Laughter] um that line well I've I've tried you denied and defied you thrown punches in the air CL eyes and count to 10 praying you'd still be standing there seeing David arrive in the studio and Elton immediately react to feeling safe dropping down having a laugh taking himself less seriously David is he is
the antidote to everything about Elton that that um is difficult for him to uh navigate and it was like I discovered Elton in '93 so that's the year that he met David and Elton and David were the first gay couple I saw in my life blueprint in some respects yeah and I am now all these years later having observed this really beautiful powerful and hilarious relationship by the way and I was like I just saw it I just had
to write a song for David because he is he's not just personally what he's done for me professionally what he's done for me on the way over I couldn't sleep on the flight and um I was just thinking and I was thinking I have the two most
beautiful children I have David and it was just I just was so happy I normally I'm bored of because I can't sleep but I was just thinking I could be any happier than I am now he is extraordinary yeah you could be anywhere
with them and you'd be fine oh yeah and this song yeah it it it's it's perfect for him um when this whole world is done with me um look that's you're not going to stop that's the beauty of it but people can't help but feel the feeling when they hear that song that there's a that there's some end in sight that's it's hard not to feel that regardless of how you feel but it did strike you at one point when you were singing It's a
powerful moment caught on a camera where it's coming to you as you sing in it I wasn't expecting I was thinking this is a really pretty verse and then when I got to the course obviously then it I knew what it was about so um yeah when I started singing I just burst into tears and I was sobbing my heart out um and that's never happened to you before no no ever ever and I you know Andrew says listen don't put it down I said no I'm
you know Med strong me I put it down today so I put a piano track down and then I put a vocal down and of course Andy was totally right it wasn't right he said you're going to come in tomorrow and you're going to play it live and you're going to sing it live and that's what happened I did it it's not a process it's an experience yeah that's and we needed to hear you do that because on the there I would have been
too upset to do it on on that day I had to be in church and and and as if I was playing a himym or whatever yeah and then I said when it was finished I to Andrew I'd love to have some a brass band because growing up in Britain I love brass bands uh um and I funny enough Sam Fender has a brass band on the last track of his album um and it's just I I told him what I wanted Andrew sang the part to the musicians and they
came in and I put the piano down the piano down was just a one track one take thing that composition was one of the most incredible things I've ever witnessed um to see him compose in a classical sense that part without it
needing to be a hook or a chorus or a verse or a part of a song it was just a stream of Consciousness composition and it was the closest I think I've ever come to seeing him do something akin to writing lyrics because it was really
written on his soul so that thing came straight out of me it's beautiful that Bernie found those words and oh I think he was feeling them too does he know me at all by the way Lord I can feel the cold front I know I know God and even just the idea of the the last word the last word being tied because it's talk about the ocean of for a second and that beautiful uncontrollable to and fro that flow on and off and how powerful the
energy that is and that's where we're all headed by the way back into the tide yeah can you ever play it live I'm not playing live I don't think I can it's hard enough to get him to play it on the record he didn't want it would be very emotional it's such an emotional song for me because it's Tiding with my family and the people I love and I just it's it's a great way to her track on the first side your track last you
know maybe losing her her daughter moving away and losing that bit and this one of me going and I don't want to go and lose my family I want to be with them forever she wants to be with her child forever so it's it's both of us had that last track to to say what we were feeling about our life and other people that we loved that's exactly right actually you put it that way I haven't thought of it that way but you're right subtext and this whole
thing is our love last strike which is so beautiful every time I play it for someone they can you play that again I'm going to miss the subd line at the end of the bridge we talk about who am I if not you yeah who who who am I if I'm not you if I'm not you yeah yeah cuz you think you you initially you want to think they're like a mini me but who am I really with when you found your identity what am I live for the joke's
on me that's the thing the great the irony of life is the joke is on me and then we all have to find a way to be ourselves when they're gone and not to forget ourselves so much that when they leave we won't know who to come back to even though those songs are sad and everything they're um a mark of how happy we areh I was literally about to say I'm going to get away from this whole closing of a chapter of life that
that song might make people feel in their life or your life it is and I'm going to ask are we going to get another one I would love to do another record but she's got to go off and be Brandy Kal for a while he was with me before and he'll always be with me he's locked into my soul his songw writing and and his his spirit is locked into my soul I'll always have Elton when I write and and as I walk through the world um but I
I recently did some songwriting without him and I missed it I called him and I said Elton I feel quarterly anemic it's really hard when you've written with Elton John to go back to writing gcd chords you know over and over again and all of these inversions and nuances that come out of this man are just you do yourself an injustice um I think working with her would be a privilege to do again and I think but she needs to go off and do what she's
learned on this record and put it into her solo stuff and then when we do another album or if we do another it'll be even better I really mean that so there you go yeah we're a bit Inseparable and also I have to say this and I'm not bring my own toic but my voice on this record is probably the best it's ever been it's Thunder and I'm 76 when I made this record so it was uh it's it's live it's [Music] like fu head back [Applause]