The dorky, virginal naif Reg Dwight became the flamboyantly dressed pop star Elton John, finally understanding his sexuality once he was in a relationship with his manager, John Reid. Within five years, John was generating Beatlemania-level fandom of his own, powered by his fantastical, observational and baldly romantic songs with Taupin: Your Song, Tiny Dancer, Crocodile Rock and Goodbye Yellow Brick Road. Bernie and I were kind of stuck to the wall going oh … my … God! He sat down at the piano and played Hey Jude, a moment I will never forget in my entire life.” “This is the most famous person I’ve ever seen close up at this point in my life. At another Abbey Road session with comedy group the Barron Knights in 1968, also attended by Bernie Taupin, Paul McCartney walked in.

That’s him in the background of Daughter of Darkness by Tom Jones (“the camaraderie in those sessions, we just couldn’t sing for laughing”). That circle began when he was a session musician starting out at “the end of an era of songwriters, and the beginning of the singer-songwriter”. “I was in Studio Two, at the same desk with the stuffing coming out of it, and I thought: 54 years ago I was here with the Hollies doing He Ain’t Heavy, He’s My Brother. I’m in wonder, total awe, when I hear something different and new.”Īfter returning to London, an album started to emerge as he picked up more recording gigs: a track with Gorillaz, a strident Metallica cover with Miley Cyrus, piano and vocal harmonies for Lil Nas X recorded at Abbey Road. “Billie Eilish, at 15 she made a record, Lorde at 16 – I was still at school at 16. Photograph: David Dagley/REX/ShutterstockĮven if he’s clearly thrilled to be in the charts again, this isn’t a cynical bid for relevance – he talks about new music with the zeal of a teenage stan trying to convince a doubtful parent. I’ve got the enthusiasm of an 18-year-old, and enthusiasm keeps me going.” “I hate it when people knock rap and hip-hop – when you actually go in the studio and watch Young Thug in front of a microphone, it’s an incredible thing.” He’d had dinner with Lipa, who duets with him on their No 1 single Cold Heart, a few nights before he rings up Olly Alexander of Years & Years, who covered Pet Shop Boys’ It’s a Sin with him, “a couple of times a fortnight.

Oil paintings of 19th-century figures flank him in the background. “Watching Young Thug freestyle was just amazing!” he enthuses over a video call, self-isolating the day before his operation, dressed in collared, lapelled pyjamas over a rugby top. One song pairs John with country singer Jimmie Allen over a drum’n’bass beat another is interspersed with raps from Young Thug and Nicki Minaj. His enormously enjoyable and varied new album, The Lockdown Sessions, may feature a range of boomer-pleasing names, such as Eddie Vedder, Glen Campbell and two A-list Stevies (Wonder and Nicks), but there are also plenty of pop artists that could feasibly incite a TikTok dance craze: Dua Lipa, Lil Nas X, Rina Sawayama. The 74-year-old certainly has his frailties – “my left hip is the hip of a two-year-old, and my right hip is the hip of a 92-year-old” – but is youthful in other ways. A good illustration of Elton John in 2021 is how, last week, he scored the eighth UK No 1 single of his career and also had his right hip replaced.

Elton john medal of freedom