Elton John Doesn't Listen To Elton John

BBC Radio 6 Music’s Matt Everitt chatted with Sir Elton John about Record Store Day on Mary Anne Hobbs’ show.

Matt Everitt: I guess, Record Store Day, I mean you’re a man with a thirst for records, with a passion for vinyl and I guess that’s still the case at the moment isn’t it?

Elton John: Absolutely, I mean, I rebuilt my vinyl collection after selling it, and I’ve probably got more vinyl now than I did when I originally sold it. So, vinyl is incredibly important to me and I like nothing better than to sit down and play a record, read the sleeve notes and then flip it over. It’s part of how I grew up, so it has a lot of great memories for me. I remember lying on the floor with Bernie listening to Sgt. Pepper and stuff like that and all the great albums in the late 60 and 70s and yeah, it’s a ritual for me. So it’s always exciting when vinyl comes around every week. I mean, I buy my vinyl from Rough Trade in Ladbroke Grove and they send me the lists every week and I mark off the ones I want and I get them from there.

Matt Everitt: And what’s in your turntable right now?

Elton John: Funnily enough it’s the new record by the Lemon Twigs, which is called Songs for the General Public. There’s two guys and I’ve been a fan of theirs for a long time. So I got that today, and that’s on my turntable right now.

Matt Everitt: You’ve got, what people call The Black Album coming out for Record Store Day. Obviously that’s the first record in the States that you released. Is it a record that you’ve gone back to listen to because you’re putting out this beautiful version?

Elton John: No I don’t listen to any of my records any more. I just don’t do it. I’m not one of these artists that sits there compiling stuff from all the vaults and stuff like that – and live recordings. Now I know it’s coming out I have relistened to it. It’s great, it sounds amazing. But I’m more interested in what’s coming next than what went by.

Matt Everitt: I asked you about this once and you said that 17-11-70 was one of the records that you did go back and listen to.

Elton John: Well it’s just I can’t believe we played so well. I mean, it’s nice when you hear things. I mean, I heard something from Blue Moves which completely knocked me out and it’s nice to be reassured that they were great records. I had a great producer Gus Dudgeon who made sure the record sounded amazing. I’ve always had great producers, so revisiting things is nice but I don’t really do it very often. Only when something like this comes along.

Matt Everitt: There’s been a lot of talk about the fact that it’s been the anniversary of the Troubadour show. That kind of flashpoint – it fascinates me because in many ways that’s the lift off point. But there was a long time getting ready for the lift off – a long time prepping the rocket. I was going to say, what was the reality of it compared to the film and the stories that circulate?

Elton John: It was pretty much like the film I mean obviously I didn’t play Crocodile Rock and I didn’t levitate but as Michael Stipe said from REM, the levitation scene was just like when you know you’ve got the audience in the palm of your hand that’s how you feel – you feel as if you’re floating in air and from that aspect it was pretty accurate I mean, we just slayed them they weren’t expecting to see a three piece rock and roll band. I was going to be a very introverted singer-songwriter. In fact I was a very extroverted singer-songwriter and the songs that we played on stage were the ones from the Elton John album but they were played by a three-piece rather than an orchestra and so we approached the songs differently and in a much more raucous way than they were on the record.

Matt Everitt: Because America – that was the moment. Because it’s not just one performance that makes people click. The audience want something, they’re looking for something. What do you think it was that you gave them at that point?

Elton John: Well the thing is we were very well honed as a band before we went there. We’d played quite a few gigs and we were very comfortable in our own skin. It was a piano bass drums three-piece, Nigel [Olsson] on drums, Dee [Murray] on bass and they all intuitively knew what I was going to do. We kind of read each-other’s minds and that gave us the chance to extemporise, stretch out a bit and they always followed me. A three-piece band gives you the freedom to do that. It was one of those wonderful things. I had Bernie [Taupin] as a lyric writer and I had Dee and Nigel as my band and it was the same kind of thing we just intuitively clicked.

Matt Everitt: Talking about the Troubadour I was speaking to a musician and he was talking about the fact that the venue might be closing I guess have you heard a lot about that.

Elton John: I’ve heard that it might be closing but I think it’s going to be ok. We have to preserve venues like this. I heard about it in the springtime before I returned to England and I made a few phone calls. There are a few irons in the fire. If venues like that disappear then it’s really grim stuff because they are so important for new people to go and I’ve seen so many new acts there that have come from Britain. I saw Cat Stevens there when he did his first show in America. It’s a great launch pad. It’s a great room, it has atmosphere it has everything going for it. If you can’t play well at the Troubadour you can’t play well anywhere.

Matt Everitt: There’s question marks over The Cavern, there’s question marks over Ronnie Scott’s it’s like – what the hell is happening? It’s terrifying.

Elton John: Well I know the lady who owns Ronnie Scott’s and I’m sure she’s going to put up a battle. You can’t lose places like that. We lost the Marquee, the 100 Club is still going but it’s very difficult in this day and age with COVID to sustain. It’s expensive to run. You can’t keep staff on. It’s vital that these places stay open for new artists. It’s absolutely vital. The small venues are the life and soul of music and they have to be kept afloat some way or another.

Matt Everitt: I can’t imagine how awful it must have been for you to look at those tour dates that you were going to and go, you know, well we’ve just got to cancel them. That must have been heart breaking.

Elton John: I mean we were half way through the tour and then you know, that was it and we’re on a hiatus and it’s like marking time but we’re no different to anybody else and as hard as it is and as frustrating as it is for me and the band it’s much more frustrating for the people who are in the crew, who depend on their livelihoods for working like that and for people at the venues and you know it just rolls, trickles down to people who do the catering – everybody’s affected by it and unfortunately we’re going to be the last people to go back to work because we play in large venues.

Matt Everitt: But it’s definitely like – no matter when lockdown changes, you’re going to do those dates, you’re going to finish that tour.

Elton John: Oh of course I’m going straight out there again. When and where, I don’t know. I mean know where – but I don’t know when. I’ll definitely be out there yes.

Matt Everitt: Let’s talk about some new music. I’ve was listening to the new Father John Misty and I was like “I bet you like that” I was wondering what else you’ve been listening to.

Elton John: He reminds me a little bit of me the way he writes songs. I liked it because it’s proper songs. You look at most of the records in the charts – they’re not real songs. They’re bits and pieces and it’s nice to hear someone write a proper song. There’s a boy called Conan Gray who has a song called Heather and he’s about 22, he’s from America and he’s the only person in the American Spotify Top 50 to actually write the song without anybody else. Everybody else there’s four or five writers on it and this boy’s going to be huge. And this song is Number 41 as I speak on the charts in Britain. It will make the Top 40 next week and it’s a world-wide smash and I just love it. It is his first big song. I like people who write songs. And there’s plenty of people that do but a lot of them don’t get played on the radio because they’re too sophisticated and we get songs made by a computer all the time and I’m not interested in that.

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