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Matt Everitt: I guess, Record Store Day, I mean you\u2019re a man with a thirst for records, with a passion for vinyl and I guess that\u2019s still the case at the moment isn\u2019t it?<\/p>\n
Elton John: Absolutely, I mean, I rebuilt my vinyl collection after selling it, and I\u2019ve 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\u2019s 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\u2019s a ritual for me. So it\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n
Matt Everitt: And what\u2019s in your turntable right now?<\/p>\n
Elton John: Funnily enough it\u2019s the new record by the Lemon Twigs, which is called Songs for the General Public. There\u2019s two guys and I\u2019ve been a fan of theirs for a long time. So I got that today, and that\u2019s on my turntable right now.<\/p>\n
Matt Everitt: You\u2019ve got, what people call The Black Album coming out for Record Store Day. Obviously that\u2019s the first record in the States that you released. Is it a record that you\u2019ve gone back to listen to because you\u2019re putting out this beautiful version?<\/p>\n
Elton John: No I don\u2019t listen to any of my records any more. I just don\u2019t do it. I\u2019m 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\u2019s coming out I have relistened to it. It\u2019s great, it sounds amazing. But I\u2019m more interested in what\u2019s coming next than what went by.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
Elton John: Well it\u2019s just I can\u2019t believe we played so well. I mean, it\u2019s nice when you hear things. I mean, I heard something from Blue Moves which completely knocked me out and it\u2019s nice to be reassured that they were great records. I had a great producer Gus Dudgeon who made sure the record sounded amazing. I\u2019ve always had great producers, so revisiting things is nice but I don\u2019t really do it very often. Only when something like this comes along.<\/p>\n
Matt Everitt: There\u2019s been a lot of talk about the fact that it\u2019s been the anniversary of the Troubadour show. That kind of flashpoint – it fascinates me because in many ways that\u2019s 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?<\/p>\n
Elton John: It was pretty much like the film I mean obviously I didn\u2019t play Crocodile Rock and I didn\u2019t levitate but as Michael Stipe said from REM, the levitation scene was just like when you know you\u2019ve got the audience in the palm of your hand that\u2019s how you feel – you feel as if you\u2019re floating in air and from that aspect it was pretty accurate I mean, we just slayed them they weren\u2019t 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.<\/p>\n
Matt Everitt: Because America – that was the moment. Because it\u2019s not just one performance that makes people click. The audience want something, they\u2019re looking for something. What do you think it was that you gave them at that point?<\/p>\n
Elton John: Well the thing is we were very well honed as a band before we went there. We\u2019d 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\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
Elton John: I\u2019ve heard that it might be closing but I think it\u2019s 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\u2019s really grim stuff because they are so important for new people to go and I\u2019ve 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\u2019s a great launch pad. It\u2019s a great room, it has atmosphere it has everything going for it. If you can\u2019t play well at the Troubadour you can\u2019t play well anywhere.<\/p>\n
Matt Everitt: There\u2019s question marks over The Cavern, there\u2019s question marks over Ronnie Scott\u2019s it\u2019s like – what the hell is happening? It\u2019s terrifying.<\/p>\n
Elton John: Well I know the lady who owns Ronnie Scott\u2019s and I\u2019m sure she\u2019s going to put up a battle. You can\u2019t lose places like that. We lost the Marquee, the 100 Club is still going but it\u2019s very difficult in this day and age with COVID to sustain. It\u2019s expensive to run. You can\u2019t keep staff on. It\u2019s vital that these places stay open for new artists. It\u2019s absolutely vital. The small venues are the life and soul of music and they have to be kept afloat some way or another.<\/p>\n
Matt Everitt: I can\u2019t 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\u2019ve just got to cancel them. That must have been heart breaking.<\/p>\n
Elton John: I mean we were half way through the tour and then you know, that was it and we\u2019re on a hiatus and it\u2019s like marking time but we\u2019re no different to anybody else and as hard as it is and as frustrating as it is for me and the band it\u2019s 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\u2019s affected by it and unfortunately we\u2019re going to be the last people to go back to work because we play in large venues.<\/p>\n
Matt Everitt: But it\u2019s definitely like – no matter when lockdown changes, you\u2019re going to do those dates, you\u2019re going to finish that tour.<\/p>\n
Elton John: Oh of course I\u2019m going straight out there again. When and where, I don\u2019t know. I mean know where – but I don\u2019t know when. I\u2019ll definitely be out there yes.<\/p>\n
Matt Everitt: Let\u2019s talk about some new music. I\u2019ve was listening to the new Father John Misty and I was like \u201cI bet you like that\u201d I was wondering what else you\u2019ve been listening to.<\/p>\n
Elton John: He reminds me a little bit of me the way he writes songs. I liked it because it\u2019s proper songs. You look at most of the records in the charts – they\u2019re not real songs. They\u2019re bits and pieces and it\u2019s nice to hear someone write a proper song. There\u2019s a boy called Conan Gray who has a song called Heather and he\u2019s about 22, he\u2019s from America and he\u2019s the only person in the American Spotify Top 50 to actually write the song without anybody else. Everybody else there\u2019s four or five writers on it and this boy\u2019s 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\u2019s a world-wide smash and I just love it. It is his first big song. I like people who write songs. And there\u2019s plenty of people that do but a lot of them don\u2019t get played on the radio because they\u2019re too sophisticated and we get songs made by a computer all the time and I\u2019m not interested in that.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n