Bernie Taupin Reveals His Hopes For A New Album By Elton John

Bernie Taupin has told Rolling Stone that he has composed lyrics to close to 20 new songs for his songwriting partner of 53 years, Elton John. Taupin says that he would love to get “back in the game” with a new Elton album.

The superstar has not released a new studio record since Wonderful Crazy Night in 2016. Such a gap for an artist of his prolific output is extremely rare: there was an interim of seven years between 2006’s The Captain & The Kid and The Diving Board in 2013, but during that time, Elton released The Union, his collaboration with Leon Russell, as well as the soundtrack for Gnomeo & Juliet. He has, however, continued to collaborate with other artists, including on Lady Gaga’s “Sine From Above” and the Gorillaz track “The Pink Phantom.”

“I did send him probably close to 16 or 18 things when he was in Australia,” says Taupin in the interview. “The original plan was that he was going to write when he was in Australia because he had so much free time down there because he was going to stay there for the duration of the Australian and New Zealand tour.”

Although that didn’t work out, Taupin said: “But he still has the work that I’ve done. I’m very, very proud of it. I think it’s very, very special. When he does decide to put digits to piano, I think we might come up with something very special. Being that he’s not going to hit the road potentially until the end of next year, that gives him plenty of time.

“I would love to see him start to do some work,” added the lyricist. “I continually encourage him to do so. How we would do it, I’m not sure. I’ve got some ideas in my head that he might be interested in. But I really, really would love to get back on track and back in the game.”

Listen to the best of Elton John on Apple Music and Spotify.