Sir Elton John will take a mini “hiatus” from music making “to figure out” what’s next.
The ‘Tiny Dancer’ hitmaker will quit touring on July 8, 2023, after he’s played the final date of his mammoth ‘Farewell Yellow Brick Road’ tour in Stockholm, Sweden.
And while he won’t rule out collaborating with other artists, the 75-year-old music legend has no plans to release any new music next year and is planning to take a little break from the studio to decide what he wants to do.
Elton reassured fans that he will never give up music because it’s so “incredibly healing”.
Speaking on The Hits Radio Breakfast Show with Fleur East, he said of future collaborations after his latest, ‘Hold Me Closer’ with Britney Spears: “I’m open to anything but I’ve got to finish my tour and I probably won’t release anything next year but who knows! I may get an offer from somebody, you never know… I might do something on someone else’s record but not on mine.”
The ‘I’m Still Standing’ hitmaker has some musicals on the way in the meantime, having penned the music for ‘The Devil Wears Prada’ stage adaptation and ‘Tammy Faye’ with Scissor Sisters’ Jake Shears.
He went on: “After next year when I finish [the tour] in Stockholm I’ll go on a bit of a hiatus and figure out what I’m going to do next. It won’t be performing but what it will be, who knows. There’s a documentary out next year, I have a musical coming out next year. I have a musical coming out this year at the Almeida Theatre called ‘Tammy Faye’ which I’ve written with Jake Shears from the Scissor Sisters. I like to keep myself busy but music to me is the most incredibly healing and fabulous thing. My whole life has been informed with music and it’s not going to stop now.”
Elton – who has collaborated with fellow music icons, including the late John Lennon, Aretha Franklin and Little Richard, in the past – revealed that 40-year-old pop idol Britney was “a little nervous” recording her vocals with him but he hailed her for doing an amazing job and said he was eager to help the star revive her career after she was freed from her lengthy conservatorship last year.
He said: “It was my husband David [Furnish] who said ‘how about Britney Spears doing this?’ We’ve been in a bit of a Britney bubble because we watched the documentary and been following what’s been happening to her and I said I’d love her to do it; I’d love to sing with her and I think it would be good for her, tremendously good for her. So we approached her and I think she was a little nervous but she went in to the studio in LA and she sang brilliantly and the result is ‘Hold Me Closer’. It all worked out and I’m happy because this is not about her personal life – this is music and so many people are on her side, and love her and haven’t had any music from her since 2016. It’s a real big bonus for me to have her on the song, she still sings amazingly and I’m trying to get her back to what she does – singing.”
Listen to Fleur East on The Hits Radio Breakfast Show every weekday morning from 6am –10am hitsradio.co.uk.