Sir Elton John, 77, has shared an intimate moment between him and death that made him break down in a studio.
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Death is a daunting and looming concept. It's always around the corner, or over the shoulder. It can creep over people just as much as it can arrive at a moment's notice. Everyone will have to face their own mortality eventually, and Sir Elton John reckoned with his own death only last year.
The legendary musician sat down with Graham Norton on the British chat show, The Graham Norton Show. There, he spoke of a lyric so profound and powerful that he broke down when singing it.
John has a long history working with Bernie Taupin, a lyricist and visual artist. They've been working together since the 60's. It was Taupin who gave Elton John a lyric so moving he had to stop recording.
"Bernie Taupin gave me a lyric for a song called, 'When This Whole World Is Done With Me', and I'm writing the verse (music) quite quickly, and I think this is a really lovely verse," John recalled.
"And then I get to the chorus, and I find that it's about my death, my demise." Not something you really want to see poetically written on some paper.
Elton John Breaks Down In The Studio After Lyric About His Own Death
"And as a 76 year old man, which I was at that time, and having children and having a husband, mortality, and you think about, 'How long have I got? How long? I hope I've got, much longer than maybe I've got."
"And so by the time I got to the chorus and suddenly realised that I started singing it, I lost it for 45 minutes."
"It was a very, very heavy moment for me," he added. And how could it not be?
After being consoled for a while, they recorded the next day, where he completed the recording in one verse.
"When you're singing about being washed out to sea and the end of your life, it took me by surprise," he said.
"It's a really lovely song."
The song in question will be a part of an upcoming album that he made working together with American producer Brandi Carlile.
