"Elton John & Brandi Carlile"

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slash terms subject to change. Hi, Sean.

No, you're Scotty.

Oh.

Hi, Scotty.

How are you today?

I was wondering if you would stick around and listen to SmartLess.

Welcome to SmartLess.

That was very good.

SmartLess.

SmartLess.

SmartLess.

Good morning. Good morning, everybody.
Hi. Hi.
Hi. Great.
Sean, you all packed? Sean, you all packed? I was just going to say, I just finished packing. I hate packing.
Sean, yes. You're going to England? I'm going to England.
Yes, the United Kingdom. Yes.
What else? To work on a fantastic new project? Do you want to talk about it? No. I mean, it's a little fun cameo in a movie called The Running Man.
With our friend Edgar Wright as director. Edgar Wright as director.
We should have him on the show, by the way. I know, we should.
I've wanted to for a while. And he's a fan.
He's a big fan of the show. I know.
He loves that. We love him, too.
Well, he's going to be busy for a little while now, right? Yeah. They've been shooting already for a while.
For Tracy, Edgar Wright directed Shaun of the Dead, Hot Fuzz, Baby Driver. Tons of great movies.
Yeah. Tons.
Yeah. Really good filmmaker.
Yeah. He's a very good filmmaker.
And a good guy. And a good guy.
Yeah, but I packed my sanitizer because I'm like chasing a little bit where I have the sanitizer wiped, so I wipe down the seats before I sit down and I wipe down all of them. Do you really? Yeah, absolutely.
See, I would be... Don't you pass judgment.
Yeah, like, what are you talking about? I would feel embarrassed that I'm making such a big... Like, do you try to sneak that at all? I don't.
Now you're embarrassed? I am.

This is the line?

I don't put music on with arrows pointing at me.

Like, look as I, you know, I do it like,

you know, quietly.

But so you, what about theater seats

when you're at a movie theater?

Do you do that as well?

Or do you, I wear a hoodie like this.

No, I do, I do,

but I do bring sanitizer to a movie theater.

And for the armrests? Yeah, but I don't wipe the seats and I just make sure I don't touch them a lot. You guys are what's wrong with this country.
You are. I truly mean that.
I do, sincerely. Oh, that's the problem in this country? But Will, don't you see, because my brain goes immediately to, so the backrests of theater seats or playing seats, you lean against it and then you go right to your pillow, right? Right.
So you lean back on your pillow at home in your bed. Yeah.
And then eventually you flip over onto your side or your face and your mouth's open and you're like- But what are you talking about? I don't go from the- Connection. I don't go from seeing a movie to laying down.
Well, you do eventually at the end of the night. You go home from the theater.
You put on your little PJs and then you climb into bed. Yeah, but it's a lot of time for the germs to get away.
But the germs don't die that quick. I think they last longer, don't they? I don't know.
I rely on something called my immune system. And people have been doing this and living forever.
What if you're smelling somebody's hair gel, you know? My grandparents lived well into their 90s. My great-grandmother over 100.
And they never owned a bottle of sanitizer. They didn't do any of this shit.
They should have. Yeah, they should have.
You're right. You're right.
You're right. Long, healthy lives.
And they didn't obsess about it. I know.
It's just a gross factor. I wish I could not think about it because I don't think I'm getting sick.
I just think I'm preoccupied with gross thoughts. Yeah, I know.
I know. Any other coffee chatter? Should we get to our guests? We should get to our guests.
No, I could talk about the airplane travel thing. But no, let's go.
Okay, and I don't know if you heard it, but I did have an S on the end of that. Yes, guys, today it's a special treat.
It's a two for Tuesday. Oh, wow.
It's a two for. We didn't even have to pay extra.
Yeah, yeah. Two for? We're going to double the pleasure, double the fun, because we've got not just the one guest, we've got the two.
And when I say two, it's kind of more like 10. What? Because of their combined accomplishments.
Oh. Okay.
Yeah. On one side, he has sold more than 300 million records worldwide.
Okay? That's 26 golds, 43 platinum, two diamond. I got to ask him what those are.
Yeah, what's a diamond? He's also received six Grammys, two Oscars, a Tony, and yes, an Emmy to join the elite group of EGOT winners. He's a Kennedy Center Honor.
Honorarye. He's received a French Legion of Honor and a Knighthood from the Queen.
For HIV AIDS, he's raised more than $565 million. Not to be outdone, she is one of music's most respected voices receiving 11 Grammy Awards, two Emmy Awards, an Oscar nomination, New York Times bestselling author.
They've combined their superpowers to create a new album with a birthday of April 4th. They're here to talk about that and their incredible lives.
I'm very excited and honored to introduce Brandi Carlile and Sir Elton John. What the hell? Can you believe it? What the hell? Good morning to you both.
Hi, guys. Guys, can you believe this? This is pretty cool.
This is really cool. This is insane.
And it's dark, so you must be in London. Well, Windsor, yeah.
Yeah. Outside of London.
Windsor. Yeah.
Okay, sorry, yeah. I'm from Glen Ellyn, which is outside of Chicago.
It means nothing to Sean Cohen. Nothing to Sean.
And you're together, too. This is, I'm, are you, what are you both doing right now? This is in conjunction with promoting the album that you're together? It is in conjunction with promoting the album.
So yeah, that's why we're talking to you guys. We're promoting and flouting.
This is so cool for us, you guys. This is really cool.
Thank you. Huge fans of us.
Like to say hello to Sean Sean, who I haven't seen for years. I know.
How are you, my friend? I know I haven't seen you in such a long time. I know.
Sean, do you owe him money? I do owe him a little bit of money and a little bit of a good time. Yeah.
He was a rent boy when I knew him. Oh.
Well, he's a lease boy now, so... By the way, it's still the same price.
Wow. Now, wait, I have a great, this is so kooky.
So, Brandy, you know, I'm going to tell this story when I first met you. Okay.
So, this is embarrassing for me. So, we were at a fundraiser, and we got sat next to each other, me and Scotty, and you and your wife.
And I sat there and like an idiot, I go, and we were laughing and having a good time. I go, I'm so sorry.
I'm an idiot. What do you do? And you said, I'm in the music business.
I'm like, oh, okay, cool. And then you introduced your wife, who's also lovely.
had a great night. And then the next day, I go to this meeting at like, I don't know, Warner Brothers or something.
And it's at a high rise. And I look out the window and the size of a building is a billboard with your face on it.
And I'm like, I just sat next to her last night at dinner. And I had no idea.
I had no idea. Now, of course, I listen to all your all your songs.
I went bananas on you after that. I've done lots of things.
I've been a roofing laborer, a barista, a grocery store worker. I've done lots of things.
Are those things true, Randy? Yeah. What kind of barista were you? Were you good at the barista-ing? I always think I would be awful at that.
Well, it's all about tips. It's all about tips.
So I was great. Yeah? Yeah.
Are you good working for the tips? I've always secretly had a fantasy to be a waiter just so I could work each table to figure out what they need me to be to get the best tip. Like separate audiences, you know? Jesus.
Yeah, we know. You were great at that? Yeah, we know how to do this in the music business, in the entertainment industry.
We know how to chameleon. I never understood why, because I worked at a restaurant, why we all have to combine our tips.
Did you ever work in one of those places? Everybody pools their tips and then you split them. Is that really the way it works? Yeah, it worked when I was a waiter.
It was awful. My obsession is watching Jason when people describe real-world jobs because, and God bless you, and I love you, Jason, but he grew up in showbiz.
He's been an actor since he was a kid, and he's never had a real-world, right, Jason? You've never had a non-acting job. Will, have you ever had a job where you get tips? Fuck no, but I'm saying the point is I have had real-world jobs, though.
Yeah, I've done trenches. I know.
I know. All right, you guys, you two, let's talk about who believes in angels.
This is your new album. What about the concept for the album? How did that come about? Whose great idea was this to get together? Who called who? Well, I've been a fan of Brandy and a friend of Brandy's for over 20 years and her family.
Wow. And I've always wanted to record with her.
And I had the idea of making the album when the final tour stopped in Europe. I'd already booked the studio in Los Angeles for October 23.
Yeah. And I wanted to desperately make a record with her.
I've been a fan of hers for years. She's been a fan of mine.
We included Bernie Taupin in the process, who's been my longtime lyricist, and Andrew Watt, the producer. So there were four of us going into the studio with nothing but self-doubt and hesitation.
Always for a good album, yes. And when I got to the studio, I was really tired.
I was grumpy. I was fairly lethargic.
And for the first few days, it was a hard experience because I was not in a good place. I had so much self-doubt, wondering whether I could shift this album into the way I wanted it to be.
And eventually, after they put... We filmed every song being written,

every take being recorded.

So my behavior is there for all to see.

And after the first...

Yeah, it's on the trailer.

It's really funny.

After the first five days, it suddenly clicked.

And people were really supportive of me and my behavior.

And they talked me around.

And I felt in a good place. And then we roared we wrote 14 songs in 3 weeks and 10 of which made the album and we started with nothing so it was probably one of the greatest creative experiences I've ever had and she is a machine, she is so incredibly inspiring, I mean her vocals she never does a bad vocal, Her phrasing, which I had to harmonize to, was so difficult for me that I actually tore the lyric up and told her to fuck off.
He did, he did. Nightmare.
Yeah, nightmare. Really, you just were like, I'm not doing that? No.
I'm not doing that? Yeah, yeah. And then after I tore it up, we had to get it stuck back together again because I was being such an idiot.
But wait, is that typically the way that it works? You show up in a studio and you've got nothing and you start to come up with either melodies or lyrics or whichever strikes you first? No, you go there with some things written. Sometimes.
Brandy does that. She goes in and I sometimes go into the studio with them.
I've had a couple of ideas, but mostly recently I've just written in the studio. are all the songs duets, or are there some solos on the album? Is every song a duet? It's 10 tracks, so we did like an album.
Side one finishes with Brandy's solo song. Side two finishes with my solo song.
Oh, that's nice. Let Brandy talk a bit.
Oh, well. I mean, Brandy, I wanted to say, you know, hi, first of all, I haven't seen you in a long time.
Hi, Will. Last time I...
Hi, how are you? And last time I saw you, you sang beautifully at Jimmy's Memorial tribute concert at the Bowl, which was just amazing. It was so incredible.
Yeah, Jimmy Buffett, the great Jimmy Buffett, who was a friend of ours and our mutual friend, Jane. And Brandy, what is it like, I mean, you're such an accomplished singer, songwriter, you've done it all, you're an incredible performer, but when you get a call, and I know you've been friends with Sir Elton John for, as he said, 20 years, but when you get a call from Sir Elton John saying, let's make a record, that must be at risk of embarrassing you, Sir Elton John.
What is that like when you get that call, when that comes through like, hey, we're going to make a record? It was, if he didn't always do what he says he's going to do, I wouldn't have believed it. But he does.
And he was coming off of that massive tour, Dodger Stadium, Glastonbury, just like really highlight moments like in anyone's life. And he was coming out of this with all this adrenaline.
And I thought, well, he's not going to do it. You know, he's saying it, but does he mean it? And the thing you guys got to understand is I have loved Elton John and Bernie Toppin since I was 11 years old.
They're the only reason I ever wrote a song or touched an instrument. Yeah, same.
And so it feels really mystical and bizarrely beautiful that at this point in my life, that this is what's happened to me and Elton in our relationship, but also it kind of makes sense. And that's more than I can explain, but it's also more than I could have asked for.
Was it a difficult thing to allow yourself, Brandy,

to let all your creative instincts flow as freely

as I imagine they flow when you're working by yourself?

When you're collaborating with somebody

that's such a hero to you,

were you able to sort of like let that barrier drop down and let all the instincts fly? Not for a long time. I mean, imagine that, you know? Like think how that could have gone.
It was like an existential crisis for me. It could have gone really wrong.
Like that first time I put a lyric down in front of Elton John, what if he hadn't have been able to write a song to it? Right. She's so inspiring and she's so, you know, I was inspired by her, I've always been inspired by her voice and her writing but her musicianship and I think we both inspired each other.
That was the whole point of doing the record to have what we have as artists and then, you know, put it on the other person and she's quick. I mean, she's really quick.

And she does a vocal in like one take.

Well, you're both able to do

so many different types of songs well.

So many different sounds and genres and rhythms.

Was there much communication

about what type of sound and tone the film,

or not the film, sorry, the album would have?

Whether it would have a rock feel, a country feel, a ballad feel. Was there any discussion about that? It was all down to Elton had this vision.
It was like, at first he was like, okay, he was trying to conceptualize what it would be. He goes, okay, we're going to be like Robert Plant and Alison Krauss.
And then he would call me a week later and go, no, no, no, it's the Eurythmics. And then he would call me a week later and go, no, it's Buddy Holly and Patsy Cline.
And then one day he just called me and he said, no, it's going to be us. Let's have it just be us, but we're not going to do anything anybody expects from us.
And then the vision just came clear. Years ago I bought her an electric guitar because I wanted to push her and nudge her to play electric and get out there and rock a little more.
And there's a great side of her that I could see that wasn't coming out. And she, you know, she's great.
She loves all sorts of music. And she's broken.
Listen, she sang Joni Mitchell's entire blue album at Disney Hall without a teleprompter, which takes balls of fucking steel, I tell you. Yeah.
So she's got big, big balls, I tell you. New title for the album.
The unfortunate thing is she breaks wind a lot, but that's okay. Yeah, yeah, no, believe me.
Yeah, yeah. It's all in the outtakes, right? And we will be right back.
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And now back to the show. How did you both first meet? She wrote me a letter, and I was aware of her music.
I was in Las Vegas doing one of my resonances, and she said, would you ever consider playing on a song of mine? And I wrote back and said, or phoned her, I put a phone number on her, and I said, hey, yeah, if you can come to Vegas because I'm stuck here, we can do something together and she came and before I even sat at the piano I fell in love with her, it was like it was destined to be a friendship that, you know, it's lasted for years and years and years and gotten better and it was I love that. It was just happenstance or whatever it was

serendipity

yeah you know what

I have to say

when I met you

Brandy too

I just immediately

fell in love

like you

you are one of those

personalities and people

that just are so lovely

and filled with light

and love

and acceptance

took me a minute

took a minute

yeah I'm not there yet

I'm not there yet

I had to warm up to her

yeah

I did

I really just did

and she's creative as hell

and that's what I love

no kidding Thank you. Yeah, it took me a minute.
I'm not there yet. I had to warm up to her, yeah.
I did, I really just did. And she's creative as hell.
That's what I love. No kidding.
It was while going to see Elton in Vegas, I remember coming down that long hallway and I could hear his voice, speaking voice, before I saw him. And I had spent so much time as a kid growing up with Live in Melbourne and Tantrums and Tiaras and all of his interviews.
And it was his voice. And I was like, oh my God, I'm going to come around the corner in a minute and Elton John is going to be sitting there.
And it was just... And a huge ball gown and a tiara and huge high heels.
In a tracksuit, but there was a lot of pink. There was a lot of pink.
About 25, maybe 30 years ago, I was in Los Angeles, young, unemployed, or barely employed actor, and I was at a restaurant in Beverly Hills. I don't know why.
And Sir Elton John, you came in, and you sat at a table with a friend, and then you had like a security guy with you at a table next to you. And the phone rang, his phone, and he took the call, handed it to you.
You spoke on the phone for like 30 seconds and handed it back to the guy. And I thought, that's what I want.
I want a guy sitting at a table behind me. He feels the call.
But were there songs on the album? By the way, when you're doing that, when you're collaborating like that, isn't it difficult to come up with a lyric or a melody or whatever and through discussion have to get rid of something that you love so much? How do you come to terms with that? There's no discussion. If Elton doesn't like it, he just yells, cut the line, and it's gone.
Really? Yeah, but it was very easy. There wasn't anything I didn't like.
All the 10 songs that we chose were the obvious songs, and the rest, they're okay. The 10 that we had were fantastic.
So no, I mean, no, I would never say that. I mean, all the songs she gave to me were amazing.
He makes decisions very, very quickly. It's not really even to be thought about.
So there's no time to really stew in your kind of artistic, you know, whatever. He just, it happens very quickly.
He's a quick, quick songwriter. Yeah.
And there'll be no touring of this, right? Because there's no more touring for you. Correct, Sir Elton John? There's no more touring for me.
And I'm very happy about that. Now, what about, well, you've done it.
Thank you very much for all your shows. My God, I went to one of the shows on this last tour.
It's incredible. What about videos? Do folks make videos still, right? Yeah, we've made a video for this and it's really great.
David Lachapel did the video. He did the album sleeve.
Yeah, of course we'll do videos and of course we'll do some TVs and we may even play on a TV show. I love that.
Sean, how's your piano playing coming along? It's going okay. It's going okay.
Yeah, he won a Tony. Yeah, he won a Tony.
He did. Yeah, yeah.
He did a play on Broadway. Incredible.
He did a Good Night Oscar at the Tabasco Theater, which won him a Tony last year. What a show! Yeah, baby! Yeah, he plays Rhapsody in Blue all by himself on a grand right there in the middle of the stage.
We've told this story before so forgive us and to our audience forgive us but Jason was sitting right in front directly in front of me we went opening night and it was as soon as that was over and Sean had played Rhapsody in Blue and everybody was cheering and Jason turned around. We both had tears in our eyes and he said, our show's over.
Yeah. We can't make fun of Sean anymore.
We can't make fun of Sean. We've got too much respect for him now.
It was so good. It was really amazing.
And by the way, and that was fleeting because we're right back where we started. I used to go around to Sean's house in Hancock Park and used to play the piano there.

It was fantastic.

This is the same house.

It is.

He's still there.

He's still there.

He's still here.

Yes, and then I,

and then you,

I think the piano

I had for a while

was yours

and then I sold it

for a bigger one.

Wait, wait, wait.

Wait, wait.

You had his piano?

I think so

because Eric McCormick

who was on Will & Grace,

he, some, like everybody was trading pianos or something. Somehow I ended up with Elton's, and then I got a new one.
Is this like a black market piano trade? What's happening here amongst musicians and artists? What's going on? But yeah, you came over and played the music to Interview with a Vampire. I was blown away.
You just sat down at my piano and started playing half the musical. And I was like, how can you do that? It's just...
It's unbelievable to see that in real life. It's amazing.
What kind of piano do you have now? Right now I have... Oh my God, I'm so nervous.
I can't remember. No, Bosendorfer.
Bosendorfer. That's the best piano.
Apart from Yamaha. Because you've got the extra notes down the end of it.
Yes, yes, yes. The depth of a Bosendorfer.
The notes? Yeah. Really? Yeah.
Secret notes. Secret notes.
I'm dumber than I thought I was. Where is it made? Wait, what is the name of it? Bosendorfer.
German. Oh, you have a lovely Bosendorfer.
If I had a dollar. And this one has extra secret keys.
This one has three extra keys. It's longer.
Of course we do. Of course we have extra keys.
Wouldn't you like to know where they came from? So Brandy and Elton, you guys, you've been on stage together multiple times. Has there been a favorite performance you guys have had together that you can think of? We haven't performed many times.
We did Dodger Stadium. Dodger Stadium would be my favorite when she sang Don't Let the Song Go Down to Me because Lady Gaga had done it before and was incredible and she wasn't available.
So I asked Brandy for this. She was cheaper.
Much cheaper. A lot cheaper.
Cheaper, but she destroyed the song. Much more eager.
It was incredible. Yeah.
The first time we actually sang together, though, I don't know if you remember this exact, the exact first time we actually ever sang together in real life was in Joni's living room. Joni, which one? On that country song.
No, come on. Not many people can say that, can they? No.
No, what a sentence. It was an old country song that I've loved since I was a little kid called You Can Tell Your Friend They're With You, He'll Have To Go.
Yes, he'll have to go, yeah. And Joni sang Love Potion No.
9 and Summertime. Yeah.
No way. Wow.
Yes. And music got Joni back together again as well as her physio.
But this girl here is on my left who used to instigate Joanie jams where people used to come up and you had to play, you all had to sing in front of Joanie Mitchell, which is terrifying. That'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...

There's that.

You.

Paul McCartney would come.

Paul McCartney, yeah.

That's amazing.

Harry Styles.

Debbie Gibson.

That's amazing.

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.
I 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, you know.

But 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.

Yeah.

And they can just load it in. Jason uses a prompter when he goes to therapy.
Isn't that right, Jason? It'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. Someone asked me to play Piano Man once, yeah.
No way. I 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.
So we fucking forgot about them constantly. And just our behavior is reflected in that.
It was a 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.

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 mean empty nesting?

Thank you. some way.
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 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 it. Independence.
Yeah. Those moments are so sad, but also so proud.
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 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.
And then his eyes weren't even open and he just goes, no more kissing. That's what I'm talking about.
And I was like, wow, okay. All right.
God, that sounds like a long marriage. I wrote a song at the end of the album, and I just get the lyrics, and I'm just to, Bernie's 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 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, you 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.
Yeah. I got it.
Wait, when do do we so what is the plan with this footage i think i want everybody to see it because it's so 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 we were making the record, I would sit behind him when he was writing his melodies and try to remember some of the ones that were really hitting me hard. And 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.
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

that'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 well we cannot wait to listen to it do you have 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 when you and have been such a, your music is such a big part of all of our lives for so long in ways that we don't even know.
Like you've just, you've 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 in a, 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 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 uh when you hear your music especially stuff that was that was from a long time ago what are those moments like hearing your music um it's great i don't listen to my stuff very often i don't listen to the radio very often but 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 myself, 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, and 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.

Anytime I've met somebody named Daniel,

I always, they say, Daniel, say,

Daniel, my brother, you are older than me.

Every single time. Yeah, for sure.
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And 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.
Is that right? Somewhere around that. No, over than that.
Why? More than that. Maybe more than that.
My goodness. Because I was in Vegas.
Yeah, you were in Vegas. And we had kind of, yeah.
So yeah, I thought 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 Brian and Catherine and the girls come down every summer, and we have the time of our lives.
Oh, my God. I love that.
I 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 get along.
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.
There'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. He 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 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.
Yeah, yeah, thank you. I mean, that's like a massive, massive hit song that was never, I don't know if it was ever released as a single.
No, there was lots of songs on the 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, did 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.
And I was like maybe 13 years old. So I visualized a lot of what has happened, oddly.
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 home.
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? I 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 that doesn't want to go anywhere, and I can sing to, and so the guy, as you know, because it's an 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.
There 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.
I never, it all happened by accident. It really happened by accident, which was lovely.
That's a good question. I was wondering about that too.
Yeah. 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. That's got to be a big important part for both of your careers yeah um when i became successful um very quickly and this is in the documentary never too late i we did so much work in five years and i went to the uh the pinnacle of uh fame in five years and um 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. Right, that's great.
And so, yeah, the little boy inside of me had vanished. But the little boy's come back.
And everybody needs that little child inside them to keep them going. And unfortunately, I lost him.
And 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. She is like riding shotgun.
I've always tried to kind of like keep the young child and me like 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.
So cool. 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're just trying not to project onto them, but it's hard not to see a mini me sometimes. Yeah.
Yeah. I'm sure, I'm sure.
I'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.

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. And 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.
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. A 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.
And 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.
To that project. 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. 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 on this 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.
Continued success to you both and specifically with this album.

We're really rooting for your careers.

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

that's

I'm reminded

the same question

I asked you

after we had

Sir Paul McCartney

on the show

how did you land

and you said

it was an incoming

this was an incoming

oh wow

wow

that's amazing

what

Thank you. The same question I asked you after we had Sir Paul McCartney on the show.
How did you land? And you said it was an incoming. This was an incoming.
Oh, wow. 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 love that.
I don't know. I didn't question.
I just said there was a question as to how do we feel about doing a double guess, which we've done a couple of times, but it's been rare. It's been musicians.
It's been musicians. It was Billie Eilish and her brother, Phidias, and the Smile guys, Radiohead guys.
Radiohead. Johnny and Tom York.
And then Arcade. Arcade Fire.
Arcade Fire as well. Yeah, it is odd that it has just been music.
But yeah, it was really kind of just no doubt about it. Double-double shotgun on those two.
That's just incredible. I mean, I know I said it already, but it's like, I mean, both of those guys have...
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 at your house and that he's played on your piano.
But I just want to... And you mention all the time Glen Ellyn, Illinois, you know, to the point that we're all so sick of it.
But 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 that- Wait, go back, go back, go back, go back, what? No, 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, yeah. 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.
That's Sir Elton John, and he went with honey. You know where he developed that from? It's from Jimmy Burroughs.
Jimmy Burroughs,s 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. You had 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.
Yeah, but when people would come on Will and Grace or I would like, Elton John was on Will and Grace or whatever it was or whoever I meet in this business. I just filled with, always filled with gratitude when you wake up.
That'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. 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. And 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, I know. What the hell to say.
Right, because you want to do the Chris Farley thing where he interviews famous people. He'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 like make it about the album.

Well, Brandy gets it too.

I mean, she's such an accomplished singer, songwriter. She's amazing.
Honestly, 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. Yeah, she's got incredible presence.
I had no idea though that they were such close friends and that 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, having them today, and I just want to say, you know, it's nice to say hello to some new friends.
Oh, no, that's terrible. But it's also nice to say, goodbye on the brick road.
Bye. That's the one I was going to use too.
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