{"id":937114,"date":"2026-10-22T16:50:12","date_gmt":"2026-10-22T16:50:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/937114\/"},"modified":"2026-10-22T16:50:12","modified_gmt":"2026-10-22T16:50:12","slug":"bernie-taupin-on-his-new-solo-album-elton-john-and-taylor-swift","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/937114\/","title":{"rendered":"Bernie Taupin On His New Solo Album, Elton John and Taylor Swift"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tSpending two years writing his autobiography, the 2023 bestseller Scattershot, and working on a forthcoming documentary, unleashed a creative wellspring in Bernie Taupin<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tExplore\t\t<\/p>\n

See latest videos, charts and news<\/p>\n

\n\tThe result is his first solo album in almost 40 years and the first that Taupin, best known as Elton John<\/a>\u2019s writing partner, has ever written solely by himself.\u00a0The Sea Has No Mercy, produced by Frank Liddell, comes out Friday (Oct. 23) on Vertigo Records\/MCA Nashville.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cThe inspiration of the memoir created something in me that started making me write things for myself by myself in the same vein. But at the same time, we started making this documentary, so it was like a trifecta. It was almost this whole idea of different ways of presenting myself without being completely self-involved \u2014 which, unfortunately, it probably sounds like,\u201d Taupin says with a laugh.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cI wanted to visualize my past, my present and my possible future very specifically and the only way I could do that was to write these biographical songs,\u201d Taupin, 76, continues, addressing the album\u2019s very personal and reflective nature. \u201cThis was a completely 100% selfish endeavor. If other people had assisted me in writing them, they would not have had the cohesive nature that they have.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tThe album includes guest vocals from Taupin\u2019s good friend Brandi Carlile<\/a>, who sings on \u201cCome on California\u201d \u2014 a song he originally thought to ask Joni Mitchell<\/a> to perform on, but Taupin says he told his manager\/wife, \u201cI don\u2019t have the balls to call Joni to ask her.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tTaupin will play the Grand Ole Opry for the first time on Nov. 7, backed by The Tennessee Stone Cutters, the musicians who accompany him on The Sea Has No Mercy. His appearance will mark his first public musical performance in nearly 30 years.<\/p>\n

\n\tBelow, Taupin talks about making the album, what John thinks of the set and why he can\u2019t name a Taylor Swift song.<\/p>\n

\n\tWhy make this record now?<\/p>\n

\n\tI\u2019d spent two years writing my memoir, which was incredibly cathartic for me. It was almost like being psychoanalyzed and being on the couch in a psychiatrist\u2019s office, but I was interviewing myself and trying to recall my life. I literally spent five hours a day on and off for two years writing that book, so it was kind of the blue touchpaper.<\/p>\n

\n\tI\u2019d never thought about doing another record in my life after making my last record, which was probably with [his country-rock band] Farm Dogs in \u201998. I wanted there to be a great lapse of time, not because I didn\u2019t care about the records I\u2019ve made in the past, but nothing in the past really meant as much to me as the possibility of doing what I could do later in life. I wanted people to forget all about what I\u2019d done in the past record-wise \u2014 [though] not what I\u2019d done musically or songwriting-wise with [Elton]\u2013 so, once I\u2019d written this book, I talked to Frank.\u00a0I\u2019d written a lot of songs myself for the first time in my life.<\/p>\n

\n\tWhy did you pick Frank Liddell \u2014 who is best known for producing his wife, Lee Ann Womack \u2014 as well as artists like Miranda Lambert and Parker McCollum, to produce?<\/p>\n

\n\tI sat down at an Indian restaurant in New York with Frank, who is one of my top friends in the world and the only person that I knew could transcribe my thoughts into the right kind of record. I gave him an envelope full of the lyrics to the songs that I\u2019d basically already written in my head, and I said, \u201cThis is what I want to say \u2026 I said if we make this record, I want it to be genre-extinct. I want it to be completely non-rock and roll, non-pop, non-country.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tI don\u2019t want people to even be able to understand what this record is, other than a concoction of all those people [who are] some of the greatest proponents of what I adhere to in music, people like Leonard Cohen and slightly more contemporary Dylan \u2014 not old Dylan \u2014 Tom Waits, John Prine. I wanted it to be ethereal without it being New Age. I wanted it to be completely atmospheric. \u00a0<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

\n\tYou recorded it in Frank\u2019s house with his daughter Annalise engineering and mixing, and with musicians he brought in. Lee Ann even joined in, as did your daughter, Georgey, who appears on the closing track, \u201cOne Hundred Ways,\u201d which is a song about your own mortality and the closing line, \u201cIn every life, there\u2019s a clock that has to stop.\u201d It was really a family affair and safe space.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe first day that we started, Lee Ann came down. She said to Frank, \u201cOK, this is going to be something really special.\u201d I know Lee Ann. She is caustic. She knows what she likes and she doesn\u2019t suffer any kind of bulls\u2013t, or doesn\u2019t lie. So, when she gave the tip of the hat and the nod to what we were doing, that was that was really a rocket in my pocket.<\/p>\n

\n\tI don\u2019t think I could have made this record in a contemporary studio. It had to be made in this family environment. Everybody embraced and understood what I had to say. Everything on this record is a metaphor for my life, from things like \u201cGhosts of Greater Men\u201d to \u201cOld Church Road,\u201d where I grew up in the early \u201960s. But I wanted to not just talk about the frailties and the pluses of the past, but the things that have worked for me in the present and then mortality and not being afraid of passing on.<\/p>\n

\n\tWere you scared about revealing this much about yourself?<\/p>\n

\n\tI think in the past I\u2019ve always revealed sides of myself, but I think they\u2019ve been probably shadowed and hidden into metaphor sometime. Also, I\u2019m not going to be completely engulfed in my own world when I\u2019m writing for somebody like Elton. I have to think about the way that he feels about things, the way he sees life, so I\u2019ve always tried to be on both sides of the fence.<\/p>\n

\n\tThis record is 100% me being completely honest and straightforward, starting with a song like \u201cFisherman.\u201d I said to Frank, \u201cI want this song to be the first song on the album because I don\u2019t want to be afraid.\u201d I wanted it to be like Leonard Cohen\u2019s \u201cBird on a Wire,\u201d [which] is a very simple song, but it\u2019s such an intricate song about faith and feeling and I wanted that to be absolutely omnipresent at the beginning of the album because I have great faith and I\u2019m not afraid of it. <\/p>\n

\n\tElton has famously said that he never spends more than 30 minutes working on the music from your lyrics, and if it doesn\u2019t come to him within that time, he moves on. Did you spend more than 30 minutes working on the music for each song?<\/p>\n

\n\tOh yeah. [Laughs.] I revisited all of these songs time and time again, especially melodically. It was so much fun.<\/p>\n

\n\tWe just lost Dolly Parton.\u00a0Did you spend any time with her?<\/p>\n

\n\tThe only time I ever met Dolly of course she was\u00a0absolutely delightful.\u00a0I was on a plane going to New York from Nashville [in 2001]. She was going to be inducted in the Songwriters Hall of Fame. [Taupin was inducted in 1992]. So, it\u2019s quite a long time ago, I introduced myself because I always have to introduce myself. Nobody recognizes me, so it\u2019s my lot in life. She was adorable, and we talked for a while and that was it.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

\n\tYou have to introduce yourself because you intentionally wanted it that way, though. You deliberately stayed in the shadow. Elton was the front guy. It feels like there\u2019s been something that shifted in you since the autobiography came out, where you feel much more comfortable being in the forefront.<\/p>\n

\n\tI have to give all credit to my wife for that, because she basically brought me back from the dead and saved my life and put me back on the map and made everything I do more credible. I owe everything to her on that. I\u2019d probably still be buried in the ground, not wanting to do anything.<\/p>\n

\n\tBut beside that, I\u2019ve never been wanting for any kind of high praise or recognition. Back in the early days, Elton was the most generous partner you could possibly want to have. Whenever he talked about any kind of projects, recording-wise or anything, he would always say, \u201cwe.\u201d It was never \u201cme.\u201d Back in those early days I was all over the album covers \u2026 I got some recognition back there.<\/p>\n

\n\tBut then I sort of faded to black, which I was happy to do. And it\u2019s so funny how everybody knows me, but they don\u2019t know my face. I saw Robert Plant<\/a> the other night [at Americanafest]. He had said to somebody, \u201cIs Bernie Taupin here? I want to say hi,\u201d because we hadn\u2019t seen each other for a long time. So, I came backstage and I went around to the side where he is and you could see him go, \u201cOK, I\u2019ve no idea who this guy is.\u201d But the minute I said, \u201cHey, Robert, it\u2019s Bernie Taupin,\u201d he\u2019s like, \u201cOh!\u201d <\/p>\n

\n\tWho always recognizes me is Paul McCartney<\/a>. He always for some reason remembers my face.<\/p>\n

\n\tSpeaking of Beatles, your album is coming out on MCA Nashville label and Ringo\u2019s most recent album came out on MCA Nashville. Have you compared notes?<\/p>\n

\n\tRingo and I go back a long way. I love the fact that he\u2019s making the kind of records he really wants to make right now, and he\u2019s working with T Bone [Burnett], who obviously I know and have worked with. So, it\u2019s like a big family. We\u2019ve always had a relationship, but I haven\u2019t seen him in quite some time. We have the same kind of joy for country music and Americana.<\/p>\n

\n\tWhy is your connection to Nashville so strong?<\/p>\n

\n\tI grew up on narrative country music. Narrative country music meant more to me than anything else. All my contemporaries will say either they heard Elvis and everything changed and they picked up a guitar, or they heard The Beatles and they picked up a guitar.<\/p>\n

\n\tWhen I grew up, there was crappy country music on the BBC in the late \u201850s and early \u201860s, but I was just lucky to be able to connect with American servicemen that turned me on to real country music, like the Louvin Brothers and Lefty Frizzell, Johnny Horton, Marty Robbins. These guys were telling stories, so they didn\u2019t make me want to pick up a guitar; they made me want to pick up a pen and write the same kind of things.<\/p>\n

\n\tBut for so long, I lived in the closet because country music wasn\u2019t hip when I went to London. The Band came along with Music From Big Pink and banged down the doors and I\u2019m out of the closet. I\u2019m writing about the s\u2013t I want to write, and hence [Elton John\u2019s 1970 western-themed album] Tumbleweed Connection and it all rolled forward from there.<\/p>\n

\n\tWould you ever write with someone like Jason Isbell, Sturgill Simpson or Tyler Childers?<\/p>\n

\n\tWhy do they need me? They don\u2019t need me. They\u2019re writing the best songs they can possibly do.<\/p>\n

\n\tYou and Elton are adamant about not selling your catalog. What would make you say yes?<\/p>\n

\n\tI don\u2019t think there\u2019s anything right now that could make me say yes. I got in trouble the other day for saying I don\u2019t need the money \u2014 which doesn\u2019t mean that I\u2019ve got a lot of money, it just means I live very frugally. So, what am I going to do with it? I know the fact that so many people who have sold their catalogs aren\u2019t happy about it now.<\/p>\n

\n\tDo you have a favorite lyric that you\u2019ve written?<\/p>\n

\n\tTo give you one is impossible. It\u2019s funny, I woke up this morning and there was a lyric in my head \u2014 and I\u2019m not saying it\u2019s my best \u2014 \u201cI feel like a bullet in the gun of Robert Ford\/ I\u2019m low as a paid assassin is\/ You know I\u2019m cold as a hired sword\u201d [from 1975\u2019s Rock of the Westies\u2019 \u201cI Feel Like a Bullet (In the Gun of Robert Ford)\u201d]. And I went, \u201cYou know what? That\u2019s a pretty good lyric.\u201d Is it the best I ever wrote? No. I think some of the best lyrics I\u2019ve ever written are on this album.<\/p>\n

\n\tHas Elton heard the album?<\/p>\n

\n\tOh yeah. His first comment was, \u201cThis was the record you needed to make.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tHe understands what I want to do. Musically, what we listen to and the way we conduct our lives is very, very different. He has great pop sensibilities. You only have to watch his podcast and what he does. I never know anybody who\u2019s got on it, but that\u2019s not unusual. I\u2019m the only person in the world who couldn\u2019t name you a Taylor Swift song, but that doesn\u2019t mean anything because I don\u2019t listen to the radio. I will respect and support everybody in the music business, even if I don\u2019t listen to it or not.<\/p>\n

\n\tWhat\u2019s next?<\/p>\n

\n\tI\u2019ve probably written nine more songs since I finished making [this] record, and I am just having the time of my life writing. I think I\u2019ve blown it out of the water as far as a personal revelation on this record. Going forward, I\u2019m going to go back to storytelling. You know how obsessive I am about the Civil War. I\u2019ve written this ghost story that somebody told me called \u201cArmy of Bones.\u201d\u00a0The thing with me is you have to understand I\u2019m always driving, driving, driving forward. I am so excited about making more music.<\/p>\n

\n\tI\u2019m happy to be a little bit selfish in my old age and be able to present my life in the way that I want it to be viewed and listened to before I leave this mortal coil\u2026 I got a lot more to say and do, but I\u2019m having the time of my life right now. I love my life.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Spending two years writing his autobiography, the 2023 bestseller Scattershot, and working on a forthcoming documentary, unleashed a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":937115,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[64,63,134,48101,136],"class_list":["post-937114","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-music","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-entertainment","tag-genre-country","tag-music"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/937114","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=937114"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/937114\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/937115"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=937114"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=937114"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=937114"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}