jail is great to see you know Susan Karen Hawaii very well thank you mate thanks for having me great thanks for having me we're all here of course for you thank you sir awesome John thank you very much we round this table to discuss this amazing film Rocketman and specifically you know the music and the
approach to reinterpreting these songs and what went into that but um first of all they have to be first impressions on a personal level and um Taryn you know I know that the first time you met Elton it hit the ground running really fast and there you guys connected quickly yeah I think the first time I felt like we really sort of
started to get to know each other was you you had me over for dinner do you remember that and madakari we had to take away Kerry I think one of the things that is very striking about them when you meet him on a personal level is he's disarmingly honest and candid about things and you've been amazing in making
me feel like I can do this thing that we've been and that's funny you should refer to Giles because your experience is vastly different because you were so young yeah I hung around studios and my dad more and more as I got older because he became his ears because he sadly lost his hearing I'm one of the carry on
working and Elton worked at air studios in Oxford Street which is my dad's two years and then in Montserrat and I was this you know annoying child that that that she Elton was always kind to and always gave everyone time and everyone loved him in the studios and that's why I remember you know how was their
experience but you know doing a duet together because it's one thing to play Alton in the movie and to get a chance to work with Giles and work on these songs even with the isolation of creativity but to actually get involved in a collaboration of us it felt like a whole other level of being a part of his
legacy I suppose you know the film is one thing but to provide vocals for an original Elton John Bernie Taupin song it's an amazing amazing thing of courses did you sing is you interesting as Elton I sang as me and actually in the film The Ramones where I try to evoke a sense of him the one that springs to mind is I'm still standing
where I really sort of tried to create his sound as much as I can or his inflection and that was largely because I've done it before as me but you know the movie is it's it's a heightened world it's a fantasy world and and also and a lot of biopics we're seeing a kind of warts-and-all quite behind the scenes
version of Anton's life you know so there isn't the research material in terms of YouTube interviews to fill in the gaps so it's like fit in the gaps you know it really is a very perfect balance between like you say there's a cold and dark wintry side of this movie yeah the childhood the upbringing the
family life and then is this escapism this desire for color and performance and exuberance yeah yeah and I wondered sort of how much of the latter was a way of coping with the former the idea of putting on these costumes going out on stage being large totally yeah totally escaping from you know I could be who I
wasn't allowed to be on stage I could wear what I wanted I could do what I wanted but then you come onstage and you'll you know take the costume often you're stuck with the same person and so I think you would ask any performer their background their upbringing shapes the way they are and a lot of performers
it's a showing off it's just to get attention base it's a coping mechanism it's a coping mechanism yeah and I'm glad that I you know became a performer because I love her for him more than anything but initially as in this movie it shows the dangers of you know being caught up in a persona and the personality that you invent and losing
sight of and then losing sight of who you become or who you aren't and you don't know who you are anymore yeah and then you end up in rehab and then you have to start your life basically all over again our Rocket Man is a perfect point to talk about that song it's been so instrumental throughout your entire
career Alton not just an amazing song that people Revere and can't wait to hear use perform live but also you know the name of your company the name of the movie and I've never asked you this before in your mind who is the Rocket Man when you were singing Bernie's words what were you singing about I just think
the word and that's on the get to Mia it's just my job five days a week it's just like this ordinary guys stuck up here and he's regretting the fact he doesn't really want to be up here he wants to be home yeah and that like me on stage was like I love it up here but I wish I could be home I don't know how
to be home I don't know I didn't have that ability to have a home until the end of the movie when I go to the treatment center and then come out the other side and lucky enough become a new person so I think you know it was just everything isn't as glamorous as it seems it sort of felt like Bernie was
willing that for you in the film and certainly when you listen to the lyrics and in the songs now with that context in mind it feels like he was sort of trying to lead you down that road without talking to you does it feel that way of course you know he his silence was deafening sometimes when you're in that kind of state and
you're not you know you don't listen to anybody even though you're taking it on board and you want to do what they say because you know they're right you just you're so messed up you just can't do it and that's why we never fell out because you knew he loved you you know we both loved each other so much and I had to
let him go and right with other people and because I otherwise I would have lost him I couldn't say I'm Elton you can't write with anybody else that's just you know you feel that way though at the time no oh I was a little bit jealous when he had hits and then I had you know blue eyes with Gary Osbourne
and part-time lovin and so I had hits with other people it wasn't the same as when the relationship came together back back together for the etool over zero album and on the full-time basis it's um even though there was still a lot of craziness ahead of us it was a reaffirming you know we belong together
well I wondered whether there were times when you were in the thick of it you get a new lyric from Bernie and you're sort of reading it as you're about to play it right it set it free and there's a part of you that thinks you look what you've written here like what are you saying about me like so astute yeah and they
spring yeah because someone saved my life to you which is well no I loved that because it was just so that whole album can't him mantastic was so wonderful to write because it had a beginning and an ending like a and it was so it was about us so it was joyous yeah and someone saved my life tonight
well I'm doing it on this tour now it's the best song in the show and it's I think it's the best time I've ever written I want to ask you a question I hope it's not too sensitive but you know I love you there is no candle and in the movie and I wonder is that just for obvious reasons because the context
has changed for you and needs to remain where it remains No did you feel any way about that about that about candle in the wind being in the middle I mean the whole idea of what that song it's hard to divorce it from know exactly and we sat at she with my with my daddy passed away three years ago I went and turned up on a Saturday
and helped him record Elton after funeral doing cam in the wind that was the last time when a studio together apart from a few weeks ago when we did the new single you play yes you do play a little sex a little doesn't sing it but plays it as this is I've written I've written this there are so many great song lattice know but there's
only one candle in the wind but now let's go back because you just made a very important point why are you glad it's not in there because I think people have fed up with it I do it in this I do it in the show I think the songs that have in terms of film probably a better suited there and there are a lot of
there are a lot of songs in this movie I mean if it's not a song that Terence seen so some Terence sung which using for background because we found that really the heartbeat of the movie has to be out in music it has to be as soon as you have another melody coming in Britain by someone else didn't make any
sense I mean I'm very happy with the song selection are you proud Elton not just about the music because of course you're proud of your of your ability to live your life but I think about the struggle that you went through which is so clearly put on cinema to accept and be accepted for your own sexuality who
you were on the inside not just on the outside and I think about where we stand now in 2019 and how the LGBTQ movement has become something that's you know real value and really really loud and all the contributions you've made yeah and there's still much to do too much homophobia immune course we had this
work to do but yes I mean I I was lucky enough to come out in the 70s it didn't do me any harm I just I assumed everybody knew anyway what I'll say about this film is it is something that I I am so proud of I wouldn't change a thing in it when I thought about doing a movie is exactly how wanted it to be you don't often say it
get that in life you know you have an idea and for something to come out exactly how you wanted it to be and in fact better because it's quite an amazing film directing wise acting wise and there's been a lot of people involved in that Matthew Vaughn and David Furnish my husband leads the producers everyone's
been fighting for their rights in the film and tower and the actors Giles everyone's wanted this film to end up like it ended up and everyone's been successful it's because you're the best simple as that Charles Martin thank you thank you thanks so much thank you thank you the course album thank you and we love you you