Last night, Elton John and Brandi Carlile participated in a rare interview and with TCM’s Dave Karger at New York’s 92nd St. Y.
The occasion was the release of their album. “Who Believes in Angels?” A hilarious Q&A followed.
Also on the panel were legendary lyricist Bernie Taupin and producer Andrew Watt — who I didn’t know is a Jewish wunderkind from Great Neck, Long Island — with quite a family story of his own!
The gang admitted the four star album took a lot of work and wasn’t always easy to record. Elton admitted that he didn’t always know what Bernie’s lyrics meant in some of their hit songs — like “Crocodile Rock” and “Take Me to the Pilot” (which is funny because I do). Lavish praise was heaped on Taupin for the new song, “When This Old World is Done with Me.”
Elton also said that Carlile’s next album is going out to push her into international popularity from being a great “American, or Canadian, artist. Can we even say that now?” he joked. The whole audience howled and he added: “The Bay of Pigs is going to be called “The Bay of the United States of America!”
Elton and Brandi are on “SNL” tonight. “Who Believes in Angels?” is number 1 on iTunes today.
