Sir Elton John feared it was “inhumane” to record an album with Brandi Carlile due to the current state of the world.
The ‘Tiny Dancer’ hitmaker has teamed up with the country star on new LP ‘Who Believes in Angels?’ but he began having doubts about the project due to the global political climate until his friend persuaded music had an important role to play in uniting people and offering positivity.
He recalled to Rolling Stone UK: “Brandi wrote a song called ‘A Little Light’, which was on the day that Israel invaded Gaza.
“Brandi was staying at her house next door, and I had all the newspapers on the table, and I was saying, ‘Why are we doing an album when all this is going on? It seems inhumane to be recording.’
“And she said, ‘We’re going to see the positive, we musicians need to bring the world together. That’s our purpose.’
“And she went away and wrote this lyric about being positive and that really turned the album around.”
When the idea for the project was first discussed, Elton was determined the pair stay away from “power ballads” because he wanted to defy expectations.
He said: “I didn’t want it to be one line her, one line me. I wanted it to be harmonies. I wanted it to be a proper duet record.”
Brandi added: “We kept the ballads to a minimum because he was like, ‘Everybody will expect us to get together and do power ballads. Let’s do uptempo, positive, uplifting songs.’
“And I was like, ‘Well, that’s kind of an amazing assignment.”
Once the pair had found their way with the record, Brandi and Elton, along with his co-writer Bernie Taupin and producer Andrew Watt quickly got into their stride.
Elton said: “I didn’t want to go back and make an album I’ve done before.
“I wanted to push Brandi and she pushed me, and Andrew pushed both of us to an intense degree, Bernie as well.
“And in the end, we were just roaring.
“We were recording a track a day, and instant first takes.”