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‘He smashed his iPad and headphones. My lyrics got torn up’: inside Elton John and Brandi Carlile’s explosive duets album
Retire quietly? The idea filled John with horror. Instead, he and Carlile made his best album in decades. They talk tantrums, mortality – and being tactful with Trump
It followed a memoir and a biopic, which cemented the Elton lore: how in 1967 jobbing musician Reg Dwight was given an envelope of Bernie Taupin’s lyrics, forging the greatest songwriting partnership since Lennon and McCartney, a baroque new identity, a rampant hit rate of era-defining albums and the commensurate cocaine addiction. Photograph: Jeffrey Asher/Getty ImagesThree weeks after we speak, Trump freezes Pepfar and instructs foreign organisations to stop distributing HIV medication bought with US aid, with appointments being cancelled, treatment interrupted and patients turned away from clinics. Between that and You Without Me, her gorgeous, one-take solo song about watching the elder of her two daughters become her own person (“that’s the feeling every parent gets – you’re proud and devastated the first time they decide not to go your way”), the album suggests that a key part of legacy is creating the space for new generations to write fresh scripts.
Or read this on The Guardian
