Elton John on Classical Music, Playing at Diana’s Funeral and His Songwriting Process | Classic FM

sir Alton thanks for sparing as your time it's a pleasure for having me this I thought I knew him John I thought I knew her I've read this book and I am I couldn't believe I only knew the half of it such an honest book thank you and that's what Bernie Taupin said that he you know I've written songs with for 52 years he said you know I thought I knew and I was he done and that's what the purpose of writing the book was to let people know about my life and to be as honest as possible and and also you you made me laugh out loud people people kept coming across me saying why was he said now you really it's a lovely laugh out loud thank you thank you for that boy can I take you right back to Pinner I'm sorry to go straight back yeah sure I want that that first time when you were in there in your Nan's living room yeah and that piano was that piano always there with you the piano was always there and in in real life that was fiction in the film in real life it was my mother and stepfathers apartment who'd Bernie and I lived in after we left my girlfriend's flat the piano was always there the upright that day Bernie gave me the lyric to your song I and I went into the living room close the door and wrote the song very quickly because I was so impressed by the lyric that an eighteen year old just it just happened straightaway Morris and then called him in and it's that process has really never changed it's always been lyric I go away write the song he comes in and here's a that's the way it's always been and was it always there like when you were three and four we is it right skaters waswas the first Union was the first and that was literally the first thing I didn't know there's a skaters boss right yeah I had a great year and I could pick up any tune really that was played on the radio or if I went to Sunday school I would come back and I would play to him and so I could play really well by ear and that's why my parents said you know I think maybe you should have some lessons and and and have some training and I think I was about seven when that happened and I went to mrs. Jones in pain over my piano teacher and I really liked it I liked it a lot and she was a great teacher and I took to it really well and I went into a music company tuitions locally and then I because I have to see had some talent they thought well you should try for a junior exhibitionist place at the Royal Academy which I did and I got in and I started here in 1958 and it was it as intimidating then as it just coming through those doors it's a it's a big place it's a big place but it was so intimidating them there I was at my jours 11 so but it smelt of fear you have to realize in those days the Academy meant classical music and nothing else no certainly no rock'n'roll the that was the devil's music no jazz no standards it was classical music all the way and that was rigorously meted out but I went here with a lot of my peers Chris Thomas who produced my records and a lot of other people's regular sky like hang up probably Britain's best harp player very well known names classic a famous well based on yeah and Scalia to get 100 out of 100 for every test you and but wonderful wonderful person Paul Buckmaster who did all my string arrangements on my records most of them I made a lot of friends here and I love coming here because although it was frightening it was also wonderfully inspiring choir was wonderful concerts were great fun in the canteen there wasn't enough room to practice so people used to practice in the toilets there though you'd hear a violinist scraping away and in the gentlemen's toilet or the ladies toilet because there weren't enough rooms it's changed so much and it's changes the better because it is now accepting every sort of music and you know you have to have the rudimentary training which is essential without my rudimentary training I would never have been able to write the songs that I've written and you can hear that and I'm so grateful for it and I just love what this place has become and the fact that I'm part of the furniture here fills me the great pride and I just love it Jonathan Atwood Freeman is a wonderful leader the leader before him was wonderful as well and they've changed the whole place and they've changed it for the better and the feeling you get now when he walks with an author yes they're imposing because in an imposing edifice anyway but when you get here no the smell of fear is just a complete fabulous joy and fun did you think the talent you had that got you in here was that nurtured at school did you have music lessons at school we did have a listener mr. Stroup was my master at school but I didn't have music lessons at school per se I used to play an assembly sometimes play the him but we have music like music was one of the few oh levels that I managed to get I got five our levels music being one of them but I didn't have any lessons at school I have my lessons with mrs. Jones and them here looking at music education today you know my kids some of those schools great music great music lessons some they don't how does that make you feel when you you've seen music in school well a lot of schools have taken music out of the curriculum and I find that really appalling because music is so inspiring and for kids that have the ability on what to blame unit there's no outlet for them in school anymore this is something that Jonathan Atwood Freeman and myself were talking about today but we want to address in 2020 when the 22 I think when I'm 75 and the you hadda me as 200 he has its Bicentennial how do we get to these grassroots kids that can't get access to play music or being taught music and it's a big void and this is something that we really want to try and do and concert Harvey I'll be able to give it my full attention because I won't be traveling so it's it's really important I think it's it's tragic that it music has been taken out of so many schools the way you you then went on after here you you you simply launched yourself by getting an audition in demonstrating on the version Tin Pan Alley yeah um do you think that was just because you just you just went out there and you did it I just wanted to be involved in music and in fact my it's like my first job was actually packing up classical music and taking it to the post office at Mills music I brass band music I used to pack it up take it to the post office by the Oasis swimming pool offers at the Shaftesbury theatre and that was my job but at least I was I met people in Mills music who were in the music business and I was still in a semi-professional bad called Blues OG and then when the time is right turn professional and I left the job but it was a foot in the door and I I left my school about six months before my a levels and I was had to go and tell my headmaster mr. Westgate Smith who was quite a formidable man I think everyone was more formidable in those days anyway and he was very very sweet he said well I know you love music but you know giving up a huge thing with your Ayla was but you know I give you my blessing and you know well I became successful I went back to my school into the little concert there and he always wrote to me and said well done and I've never forgotten my roots and I certainly couldn't ever forget the economy and say you've done exactly the same here I've just been in a Q&A with you and the students and now discovering the things people probably don't know even goes on not just talking to students that there are eight scholarships every year eighty-eight scholarships here that's something we've been doing since I think 2005 or died before that it's something that I just really wanted to do because some students you know can't afford it and they don't have the wherewithal or the money to get it any other sponsorship so I can help in that way and it's been delightful to see some of them in here and how they've succeeded and become you know what they wanted to be there's a very moving moment to see some of your scholars standing up successful in their or being successful they're doing what they love they're musicians they're singers they're working in film arranging conducting one of those conducting at the Coliseum with the Eno it's wonderful I mean music is so widespread and I've always loved the genre of music and all the genres of music and I'm so grateful for my classical training and I know we're talking to classic EFM so I'm very grateful for the music that I started playing well I played Chopin and bark and Mozart and Debussy and learn to play the beautiful pieces of music and then I was never good enough to play in the Academy orchestra was always the best pianist but to be part of the choir was incredibly I didn't know about you love you're singing in a choir singing in a choir I think anyone who sings in the choir say it's such a moving experience just the noise that you make and the camaraderie and the and it's just the most life-affirming experience singing in the choir and I think that was the thing I enjoyed the most was seen in that choir singing on a Saturday afternoon of the concert it was really beautiful there's so much beautiful choral music around and just being part of a group of people who love to do that was just so you know gives you that fire in your belly to want to do more and you very much who said you wouldn't get into the orchestra but you did eventually play with the Symphony Orchestra from here didn't you well I took them on to it yeah yeah I took the Sun unduly odd in the mirror I took them here I took them on tour in England at Wembley and then we went to America and we went to Radio City Music Hall and I tell you what I played with classical musicians I play with the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra in Australia which was wonderful but playing with the kids was different ballgame so much enthusiasm less cynicism yeah just as you know youth is so wonderful I listen when I listen to music now the thing I'm looking forward is being inspired by a new young musician writer singer that's what inspires me and playing with the Youth Orchestra was like playing it was just like I don't know it was just it was so exciting was like fireworks going off every night and they were having a blast they were in New York they were playing with the the Juilliard Orchestra and they were going out and having a great time afterwards and the sound that we made on stage was extraordinary it's the same here you say about the Academy this place feels really buzzing and it's not just kiss your ears no no it simply yeah there's so many things to do here now and the atmosphere and the people who work here are really great and they're guiding people to do what they want to do not everyone can be the greatest classical musician but some people want to be in musical theater some people want to arrange some people want to write some people want to sing and they're sorting that when I was here there wasn't so much she was just you're either gonna be a classical planner or you're gonna be in an orchestra or opera and that's it there wasn't the other alternatives available there are here now and it's nice to see that one size doesn't fit all but it's the one piece of advice you might give to everyone in almost every area it's the one did you have any century well if you're if you're a classical musician obviously practice and practice and practice that is something that you have to and as a as a pop musician that's what I did as well I practiced and well the more you practice the more you play before an audience but you get fear drives you on and also go for what you want to do you know you have to you know sometimes take a job you don't really want to do but it gets you to another place so you you know not everyone can be where they want to be straightaway you have to work your way up and I played my share of horrible places and venues but I enjoyed every single minute of it because it meant that I was learning my craft learning your craft is the most important thing because sometimes your music education invest Commerce it's not always as obvious as you think it is you have you saying that Long John Baldry teaching you so much just by being with it yes you watch people and you watch how they perform with an audience backings used to back all these R&B stars like Patti LaBelle major alarms Billy Stewart watching them get an audience in the palm of their hand was extraordinary and you learn if you don't learn then you're not paying enough attention and you shouldn't be doing what you're doing to watch other people when I watched Jacqueline Duprey play the Elgar cello concerto it gave me it was such an extraordinary thing I'll never forget it it was just wow can can anybody be as good as that and can I be as good as that it wasn't there was millions of miles from what I was doing but it was so affecting it was extraordinary it made me cry and it's when you see things like that and they inspires you inspiration is the greatest thing go and see the greatest people go and see people go and see check other people out other musicians get inspired you know there's so many wonderful musicians out there doing things that wig male Woodmoor Hall at the festival hall at a concert you know a pop concert or jazz concert you know go and check these people out they will inspire you and you will go home and you'll bounce along your way to the tube station like I used to do to Baker Street to North foothills and you think God on one day maybe I can be like that absolutely entry what so which classical music do you listen to for choices here what what music is your favor I tend to go towards the pastoral I tend to go towards Warren Williams Sibelius Nielson Elgar Aaron Copeland but it depends what mood you're in the thing is music it's all about mood I can get up in the morning I think I want to listen to Maria Callas today I want it on that kind of mood or I want to listen to Frank Sinatra or I want to listen to Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds the great thing about music is there something there for your mood I'm a bit of a romantic so I just love Warren Williams and the Englishness of it all and Elgar obviously and I love Handel handle is one of my favorite composers and especially the trumpet music I loved when I was talking to the trumpet player here that I give a sponsorship to I'm talking about Wynton Marsalis playing handle and if you've got if I have a request on Classic FM ideas you want I can I'd love to hear some Wynton Marsalis handle trumpet music it's yours is ever yours um I also want it can I just quickly dig into you and Bernie Taupin know I mean I heard you talking in the Q&A as well about it it's almost like a mystical arrangement it's it's very mystical there's no rhyme or reason really it exists I don't question it I've people say have you ever tried to fathom it out I said no I trust the process it sounds very cliche but it's like a gift from God that I look at his lyrics as I'm looking at them I'm imagining what's going on a film appears I finished the lyric I think I kind of think this should be the tempo maybe and genre music and then I put my hands on the keys and there I go from there and it's usually the first four or five chords that I played it what the songs going to be and I have no idea where it comes from and it's it's you also said it's kind of Otherworld yeah is it she said he's never had writer's block in a sense you just know something there are some that I've tried to write to and I couldn't write them and so I just that's not meant to be so I'll just move on to something else but usually they're done very quickly because I write very quickly but I don't i starved myself from writing I don't write very often I write every two years in the early day he was every other week but now it's some I don't write very often I'm writing in Australia when I'm going to be there I haven't written an album for two or three years three or four years so I'm looking forward to writing never know what to expect that's the great thing about writing with these stuff I never know what I'm gonna get so the process has never gotten dull it's always been oh what's this one gonna be in and you know you make so many albums and people say well the albums on it's cool they used to be but people are very lazy they don't listen and some of the things I've done on the last three or four records or some of my finest things and when I do stop touring and I decide to do a concert again somewhere there will be the sort of songs that I will be playing I've played enough of the obvious stuff and I've there's plenty of things I think a better but the public don't know about them so it's a bit like trying to start again or trying to find a obscure piece of classical music that people don't often hear instead of Albinoni or you know Packer Bell or something like that yeah can I can I take you back if you could we have an art hour playlist a piece of music by Tavenner yeah otherwise it might be an obscure piece of music but it was played at Princess of Wales funeral but and it ever since it was it's touched a chord with our audience but in a way that you know that that event did I heard you say that I was the only possibly the only time you ever really got a stage fright in a way well it was an enormous responsibility and I'd been seeing that song because how many years as goodbye Norma Jeane and I thought if I don't concentrate I had to call on all my professionalism of all my years of playing in clubs and being Elton John to to pull that off and I'm doing it for the people outside all around the world and so I had a teleprompter just in case I am I didn't want to sing goodbye Norma Jeane you I would have been garroted on the spot and so yes that was kind of nerve-wracking and I pulled it off because I had to it's lightning and you have to man up in situations like that and you call on your experiment and you know you've had so much experience use it and do it but talking of travel I love I love choral music I love many I'm a big fan of the anonymous fall yeah so that's it I love Church musical of being in a church listening to organ music the bark or whatever is astonishing and I mentioned to Jonathan Ahmed Freeman here who runs the Academy about Cameron carpenter do you know who Cameron Carver Doone is a young young ish organ player who probably the finest organ player who played Virgil Fox and Bard and if you look him up on YouTube and any of you listening to classic affair maybe you haven't heard of him look him up on YouTube this is one of the most astonishing musicians I've ever heard unseen in my life his extraordinary looks like a punk rocker and he plays the most extraordinary older music and he he for me it's one of the greatest musicians in the world kind of church music and you we brought some presents I hope you don't mind we've got presents for Zachary and Elijah as it's coming up to where they both playing the piano yeah they're having lessons Marcus there I'm not 40 they wanted to do well I'm not forcing them on there but I wanted to have less their little music books and they're all about classical music for young fans press the music anyway that's for them well I shall take these to Australia with me in fact tomorrow night I want you to ask their for Christmas yeah not for now but do you love Christmas I remember it's a favorite piece of Christmas music favourite Carol oh come were you faithful Kings collared choir never never fails to stop me shelling until I was shed a tear so beautiful that music at Christmas time to listen to that thank you for your time out thank you thank you guys again and one of these days I'd like to come in and do a DJ program for you it's yours seriously I do breakfast I'll move over all right all right you just well we can do breakfast together that'd be great AHA yeah you heard diets on film yeah no you got that we'll do it to go I'd promise you one will do it and croissants on me and one final thing I play for our choir in our damage and I play piano for us you know very badly but I need to do this I need to get some I need to get it thank you and if I got the smallest hands oh that's perfect I will now there you go I have thank you I really enjoyed that so much thank you everyone you

Channel: Classic FM

Views: 111,101

Keywords: Classical Music, Music, Classic FM, classic fm radio, classic radio shows, classic fm tv, classic fm radio live, classic fm live, Elton John, elton john your song, elton john im still standing, elton john tiny dancer, princess diana, elton john interview, elton john interview 2019, elton john classical, elton john classical piano, elton john classics songs, me elton john, me elton john autobiography, me elton john audiobook, me elton john autobiography audiobook, christmas

Id: EZTe7So4WJk

Length: 21min 2sec (1262 seconds)

Published: Thu Dec 05 2019