Bernie Taupin Shares ‘Come On California’ With Brandi Carlile
The track appears on Taupin’s first solo album in almost 40 years, due October 23.
Bernie Taupin has released “Come On California,” a new single featuring Brandi Carlile, on September 18. The track appears on Taupin’s forthcoming album, The Sea Has No Mercy, which is due October 23 via Vertigo Records and MCA Nashville.
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“Come On California” draws on Taupin’s relationship with the state, where he has lived for more than five decades after first arriving in Los Angeles in 1970. “It’s intensely personal,” Taupin said. “California is in my blood.” He said the song reflects relationships and memories from his years there, including driving Highway 101 in a rented Mustang and hearing his own songs on the radio. Carlile also described Taupin as an early influence on her songwriting, saying she had long hoped to meet and write with him before the pair eventually recorded together.
The single follows Taupin’s first appearance at AMERICANAFEST in Nashville. On September 16, he and Carlile took part in the festival’s 2026 Keynote Conversation, a moderator-free discussion covering songwriting, collaboration, storytelling and artistic longevity. Taupin also appeared at the Americana Honors & Awards at the Ryman Auditorium, where he presented Carlile with the Song of the Year award for “Returning to Myself.”
The Sea Has No Mercy is Taupin’s first solo album in almost 40 years and the first album he has entirely self-written. Produced in Nashville by Frank Liddell, the 10-song record features guitarist Adam Wright, bassist Glen Worf and keyboard player Michael Rojas, who perform with Taupin under the name The Tennessee Stone Cutters. Additional contributors include Taupin’s daughter Georgey Devon Taupin, Lee Ann Womack, the Jeremy Jordan Ensemble and percussionist Jay Bellerose. Taupin said the material reflects experiences he could only have written about later in life: “They need the life behind them.”
The album was developed alongside Taupin’s 2023 autobiography, Scattershot, and a retrospective documentary that has been in development for several years. The Sea Has No Mercy will be released digitally, on vinyl and on CD on October 23.
