"Elton John & Brandi Carlile"

23:34That's a lot. Oh, my God. 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, you'd... Oh, there's that, yeah. You. Paul McCartney would come. Paul McCartney, yeah. That's amazing. Harry Styles. Debbie Gibson. That's amazing. God, I mean, you sang the whole Blue record too. I mean, what an incredible record that is. 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 is ridiculous. And without a teleprompter.

24:10I 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. And Joni couldn't have been happy. She resuscitated Joni. I love that. Wow. You know, you bring up an interesting point. I've wondered that about the teleprompters for lyrics and stuff. How common is that on tour with musicians? It's getting more and more common. I started seeing it happen at all the tributes and stuff like that. But now I think it's just kind of a part of it because they look like monitors on stage, so you can't tell.

24:46But I'm sure that it's interesting because a lot of musicians haven't figured out how to not look at them when they're performing, so I hate seeing that. But at the same time, it provides some spontaneity because then a musician can take a request out of the audience and actually play a song. Right. And they can just load it in. Jason uses a prompter when he goes to therapy. Isn't that right, Jason?

25:10It's hard to keep all the lies together, yeah. Could you imagine? I get requests from the audience, can you play piano, man? Wrong guy. No way. Wrong guy. No way you do not have you. Someone asked me to play Piano Man once, yeah. No way! I'd have played Piano Man with Billy. Many, many, many, many times. Security, security. I couldn't play it on my own. Security. Oh my God. That is crazy. Now, what are you, you say you filmed the entire recording process. What's going to happen with that? But the crazy thing is, I never saw a camera. We don't know where they were. They were fixed, little tiny things.

25:47So we fucking forgot about them constantly. And just our behavior is reflected in that, you know? It was very strange. concept and I don't know I think for that reason it's like it's a wild ride. 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. Oh it's just it's like about that moment like when you have kids like where it's like they depart you in some way even they it can even happen when they're young and you're so devastated and you're so proud at the same time and you don't know which feeling to pick it's about that i love that you're you mean empty nesting kind of but it can happen early on too like the first time that they choose something you don't believe in or pick a record you don't like or decide to stay home on a trip when you want independence yeah those moments are so sad but also so yeah he's so proud it's so true my four-year-old this morning it was kind of heartbreaking my four-year-old said to me he was just waking up and i was he was kind of snuggled up against me and i was kissing his head kissing his hair and I was like, hi buddy, good morning, morning.

26:52And then he just, his eyes weren't even open and he just goes, no more kissing. That's what I'm talking about. And I was like, I was like, wow, okay, all right. God, that sounds like a long marriage. I wrote a song, I wrote a song at the end of the album and I just get the lyrics and I'm just to Liburnish talking 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. Thanks, Bernie. 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.

27:32You just think about mortality. And so when I got to the chorus, I just broke down for 45 minutes and it all on film. Cried hard. Oh, wow. And we just, yeah, yeah. I got it. Wait, when do we, so what is the plan with this footage? I think, I want everybody to see it because it's really human, like deeply flawed and embarrassing. And the kind of shit that you do when you forget that there is a camera on is what's really interesting. But that moment, I got to be in there and I witnessed that moment because when we were making the record, I would sit behind him when he was writing his melodies and try to like remember some of the ones that were really hitting me hard.

28:10And I was recording him on the melody of this song because I thought, okay, well, I want to remember this melody so that in case he moves on to another one, he can remember how good it was. And he got to the end of that chorus and his voice started to shake. And I thought, oh, he's going, like he's going to really go. 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.

28:38That's great, that's great. Hold on to promotion. The worst part is she was looking at an app that was telling you real time when it was going to happen. That was scary. And I said, no, you're not in the will.

28:51That's hilarious. Well, needless to say, not to be maudlin and we can push past this afterwards, in the sort of the plan of using all your years as well as you possibly could, Sir Elton John, my goodness, what an enormous list of accomplishments you've done thus far with plenty of time left. Yeah, plenty of time left. You've contributed for three lifetimes. So rest assured. And this is, believe me, this is one of my biggest accomplishments. Yeah. Well, we cannot wait to listen to it. Sir Alan, can I just ask you quickly, if you don't mind, when you, and Brandy alluded to it before, you being such a sort of a hero of hers, you know, musically and inspiration, and Sean, you too, also as a musician.

29:41When you, and you have been such a, your music is such a big part of all of our lives for so long. And in ways that we don't even know, like you've just, you really sort of weaved right into the fabric of all of our lives. Do you have moments when you're moving through the world? You're somewhere and your song comes on. You're in a car, you're in a restaurant, you're in a shop, you're somewhere. How does it strike you when you hear your music, especially stuff that was from a long time ago? What are those moments like hearing your music? it's great. I don't listen to my stuff very often. I don't listen to the radio very often.

30:18But when you're in an elevator and you think, what the fuck is that? And it's Daniel, you feel very proud. Yeah. No, I do. 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. 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. By the way, I'm glad you mentioned Daniel. I think that probably a thousand times in my life I've made this stew.

30:55Anytime I've met somebody named Daniel, they say, Daniel, my brother, you are older than me. Every single time. Yeah, for sure. We'll be right back.

31:09And back to the show. so you guys have your friendship is did you say it's 20 years you guys have been buddies over than that somewhere around that no over than that more than that maybe more than that yeah my goodness because that was I was in Vegas yeah you were in Vegas and we had kind of yeah so yeah it's longer than that do your kids know each other yeah they must yeah you guys go on vacations all the time together they come to we have a house in Nice in the south of France and Brandy, Catherine and the girls come down every summer and we have the time of our lives. Oh, my God. I love that.

31:44I love that. I stayed in a house right close to your house, Sir Elton John, a couple years ago. I was working on a job for like six months and this French caretaker of this house kept saying, that is Sir Elton John's house right there. I didn't ring the bell. What about, do either one of you need any parenting tips from the other person? How does that go? Do the kids get along? Kids love each other. Kids really love. 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.

32:15There'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. I mean, they're just beautiful girls. The first time I went to go visit David and Elton in France with Catherine and my girls, we landed and we went downstairs at this table, this beautifully adorned table for breakfast. I mean, everything is like decked out. There's like designer napkins and it's like unbelievable. You wouldn't believe it. And I had a three-year-old at the time and she was at that table for three seconds before without any warning, she projectile vomited all over the entire thing.

32:54He didn't even pretend it was okay. He was just like. God damn it. But no, he and David were so sweet about it and they calmed our anxiety. but I mean, I died a thousand deaths when that happened. Poor little fans. You remember that. That's all sweet. Wait, you know, Elton, you know, I go for walks a lot around my neighborhood because you can, and I just put on this album that I bought when I think I was a senior in high school called Red Strikes Back. It's one of my favorite albums you ever did. Oh, thank you. One of my favorite songs, I never hear it anywhere. It's so perfectly written as the heavy traffic song.

33:33Yeah, yeah, thank you. I mean, that's like a massive, massive hit song that was never, I don't know if it was ever even released as a single. No, there was lots of songs on that album, Japanese Hands and stuff like that. Yes, Japanese Hands is great too. I love all those songs. There are lots of deep cuts. I mean, I've had a lot of hit singles, but probably the best songs are on the deep cuts. Oh, yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. For sure, for sure. And of course, Give Up the Ghost is one of my favorite albums. Yeah. Oh, thank you. It's true, it's true, one of my favorite albums. So Brandy, growing up in Washington, did you think that you would be at this?

34:11Did you allow yourself to sort of dream about where you sit now in the industry, the level of respect and accomplishment? And how did that – how did – well, I guess just answer that one first. Did you allow yourself to dream of this high? Yes. The nuanced things like respect or credibility are things I value so much now. I hadn't really fantasized about, but I would close my eyes and dream of myself on stage at Madison Square Garden. I would think of myself like I would visualize myself winning a Grammy and thanking Elton John before I ever met Elton. I was like, oh yeah, I pictured I would get up on stage and thank Elton John and the Indigo Girls.

34:55And I was like maybe 13 years old. I love that. So I've visualized a lot of what has happened, oddly. Yeah. And I don't understand or profess to know why that is. But yes, I did allow myself to dream really big from that single wide mobile hump. I love that. Yeah, I wonder if the visualization, if you feel, is a really important part of it. And I'd ask you the same, Sir Elton John. Did you allow yourself to dream as big as well? And for our listeners, can you speak about what that kind of big word nowadays is manifestation. I don't know if you guys subscribe to that, but having those goals and the vision and belief in yourself, what size role did that play, do you think, in both of your successes?

35:40I never imagined myself as a solo artist. When I was in my group, Bluesology, I took the big risk of going up to Liberty Records saying, I want to write songs. I'm so fed up with playing in a band. It doesn't want to go anywhere. And I can sing too. and so the guy, as you know, because the old story gave me the envelope with Burner's lyrics in it. And then when we wrote songs, I had to go out and nothing was happening. 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 like, it was so exciting because I came to America and there was Neil Diamond introducing me.

36:18There was Brian Wilson. There was Linda Ronstadt. 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 realized, 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. I was wondering about that too. Yeah, and I would imagine the preservation of your smaller image, your more human image, your younger image, I would imagine has been, remains to be, a very important part of not only your identity, but your ability to be creative and your ability to write and to constantly be connected to the person that the public does not know, the person who you started as.

37:12That's got to be a big important part for both of your careers, yeah? When I became successful very quickly, and this is in the documentary Never Too Late we did so much work in five years and went to the the pinnacle of fame in five years and I lost the person that I was originally and that was very hard for me and it took me loads of years to get that back and I got it back when I got sober which is 35 years this year hopefully and so yeah But the little boy inside of me had vanished. But the little boy has come back. And everybody needs that little child inside them to keep them going. And unfortunately, I lost him.

38:00And it made me very unhappy and very depressed. But I still kept working. I still kept making records and touring. And so the music kept me alive until I finally came to my senses. And now my life is incredible. I mean, I couldn't have a better life than I could. I wake up every morning with my children and David and all the people that work for me, the nicest people in the world. I am the luckiest person in the world. I am blessed. So yeah, and that little boy is very happy. That's great. I love that. And Brandy, I'm sure that little child in you stays vibrant and loud. She's hanging out right now.

38:37She is like riding shotgun. I've always tried to kind of like keep the young child and me at bay long enough to do my job and get through the things that are important to me. But for this one, I've just let that girl come to the surface totally because I'm getting to hang out with Elton John. And that's an unbelievable realization of a dream. And it's really been like a life-affirming thing. And also that young version of yourself gets clearer when you have kids too. You know, you're just like trying not to project onto them, but it's hard not to see a mini me sometimes. Yeah. I'm sure, I'm sure.

39:20I'll bet. Well, God, you know, there's, I'm just looking at you two going, there's such a very, very, very small group of people in the world that have gifts they leave behind that will last forever. I mean, just for decades. Yeah. And to have a part of you live on in music is so rare that a lot of people try to achieve that level and they just don't. And so it's just incredible, incredible to see you guys. And now together, it's great. Thank you. Yeah. Thanks, Sean. That's it. And I'm going to try drugs for the first time. I'm kidding. I'm kidding. You've never tried drugs, right, Sean? Me? No, I would get stoned all the time, smoke pot constantly.

40:09And now I take gummies, which is nice. but the only hard thing I tried was... Well, they're legal nowadays, right? Yeah, they're legal. But I tried mushrooms once and it was just insane. I felt like I weighed 250 pounds and it was just awful. Awful. It was terrible. The 250-pound mushroom, a film coming to you soon. Yeah, it was terrible. You wish. Yeah, that was awful. Yeah, that's it. Wow. And then what's that process like? So now you're done. You've completed the record and it's going to come out and you're not going to tour. Maybe you'll do a few dates, a few live dates or a show here or there.

40:48And then I guess it's not unlike, you know, for us like working on a film and then you kind of go and you move on and then it's like, it's hard to say goodbye, I'm sure, when you make a connection. I mean, you're still friends, obviously, but when you do something that's so intensely creative. We talk every day and we see each other every chance we get. We'll always be making music together as long as we can. Wow, that's fantastic. Yeah, I love that. I ain't letting go of it. What? What's that? He said he ain't letting go. No. Oh, that's good, that's good. Well, we can't thank you both enough for joining us.

41:23I mean, what a thrill. And talking to us about your album. Thank you, guys. Yeah, it's been a pleasure. It's been an honor. Thanks, fellas. Good to see you both. Yeah, absolute thrill. Continued success to you both and specifically with this album. we're really rooting for your careers to do with think of something to do with that footage please put it together so we can all get that privileged view into the process oh well I hope we meet each other soon so we can give each other a big hug and Sean I do miss you I love you very much okay I miss you too honey I love you too thanks it's good to see you thanks you guys so much enjoy the rest of your day bye bye bye bye Jason how in the world I mean did you How did you quote land them?

42:08I'm reminded of the same question I asked you after we had Sir Paul McCartney on the show. And you said it was an incoming. This was an incoming. Oh, wow. That's amazing. Yeah, they're promoting that album and I guess they're doing a podcast and we were chosen, I suppose. I don't know. I didn't question. I just said that there was a question as to How do we feel about doing, you know, a double guess? You know, which we've done a couple of times, but it's been rare. It's been musicians. It's been musicians. It was Billy Eilish and her brother, Phidias. Yeah, yeah. And the Smile guys, Radiohead guys.

42:48Radiohead. And then... Johnny and Tom York. And then Arcade. Arcade Fire. Arcade Fire as well. But then... Yeah, it is odd that it has just been music. Yeah. But yeah, it was really kind of just no doubt about it. Double barrel shotgun on those two. That's just incredible. I mean, I know I said it already, but it's like, I mean, it's both of those guys have... Go ahead. Well, I just, Sean, I'm looking at your face. And first of all, you know, that Elton John knows where you live. Funny. And that he's been to your house and that he's played on your piano. But I just want to... And you mention all the time Glenel in Illinois, you know, to the point that we're all so sick of it.

43:30But did you, is there, for you, the novelty, as a kid growing up in Glen Ellyn, Illinois, who loved music, who's sitting there with, you know, four siblings, no dad, is there part of you? Wait, go back, go back, go back, go back. What? Yeah, what's that? Yeah, no, he's gone. I'm just trying to paint a picture. But it must be for you, Sean, it must be mind-blowing that you're talking to Elton John. Yeah, it always is. Your buddy. Your buddy. You kind of suppress it because you can't believe it, so you kind of stuff it down. I believe the sign-off was, buy honey, is what he called him. You said buy honey.

44:08That's Sir Elton John, and he went with honey. You know where he developed that from? It's from Jimmy Burroughs. Jimmy Burroughs. You know when Burroughs calls everybody honey? Honey, one more time. You're like, I'll do the scene again. Stop calling me honey in front of the crew. Yeah, it's such a habit now. I know. Everybody from Will and Grace calls everybody honey. But yeah, no, he, yes, exactly. Well, thank you for saying that. But yeah, but when people would come on Will & Grace or I would like, Elton John was on Will & Grace or whatever it was or whoever I meet in this business. I just filled with, always filled with gratitude when you wake up.

44:39That's where it all starts from. And if you're there, then everybody's on the same playing field, right? Everybody's like, you as much, that's me trying to suppress like, oh my God, it's Elton John, you know? But you're like, wow, it's, yeah. Anyway, it's my long answer. Well, it's a thrill to play. Like I know JB's playing golf with Thomas Rhett today. Like I know his whole schedule. So, you know, like just to be able to play, am I right? You are right. You are right. He texted me during the show. He's such a great guy. And he said, hey, man, I wish you were playing today because obviously you're not enough.

45:12And so, which is, which is, but I mean, honestly, even JB, you're not even a musician. You don't even know what music is. For you, Elton John and Brandy must be a thrill. I have to admit, I think I was more nervous for that than I can remember. I think I've probably been more nervous for some of these, but I can't remember which one. I don't remember. It's been a while. Like I've got tons and tons and tons of questions here and I couldn't bring myself to ask any of them of either one of them. I just didn't know where to start. Yeah, yeah, I know. What the hell to say. Right, because you want to do the Chris Farley thing where he interviews famous people.

45:49He's like, you know, when he did Paul McCartney. Remember when you were in the Beatles? But I mean, with both of them too, with Brandy, it's just like, I'm just not sure what to say to people like that. I wanted to ask him about every song. Like, how did you think of it? Where did it come from? And you just know he's so over it. Well, thank God you waited until he was gone again. Well, but I wanted to be respectful of Brandy. I didn't want to just make it all about him. I wanted to make it about the album. Well, Brandy gets it too. I mean, she's such an accomplished singer, songwriter. She's amazing.

46:17Honestly, that tribute for Jimmy Buffett last year, she brought the house down. She was unbelievable. Yeah, she was stunning. and Give Up the Ghost really is a great album I love that anyway yeah she's got incredible presence I had no idea though that they were such close friends and that they vacationed together for 20 years they've been buddies yeah yeah yeah you know what listen I think there's only one thing that I can say having them here today yeah having them today and I just want to say you know it's nice to say it's nice to say hello to some new friends oh no that's terrible but it's also nice to say goodbye Yellow brick road.

46:57Bye. That's the one I was going to use too. Smart. Less.

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