Elton John

ROBERT DOWNEY JR.: Hi, E.J.

ELTON JOHN: Hello, gorgeous man. How are you?

RD: I'm almost as pretty as you are, honey.

EJ: Oh, I hear nothing but good things about you.

RD: Oh, fine. Well, never before in the history of this magazine has an interviewer been so ill-prepared. But right off the bat, what are you wearing?

EJ: I'm just wearing a robe and a pair of slippers.

RD: And are you presently back East?

EJ: No, I'm in Las Vegas. This is our last stint of the year doing The Red Piano show. It's going really well. I'm loving it, loving it, loving it.

RD: When you're playing, do you have a sort of preshow routine that you go through?

EJ: No, but I always get to the venue about two and a half hours before show time so that I can relax and watch TV, maybe take a little nap, maybe get a massage.

RD: See, I think shiatsu is the answer.

EJ: [laughs] Yeah, I had a great one in Hong Kong.

RD: Then again, you could go into a healing crisis while you're performing and suddenly be processing repressed feelings from adolescence.

EJ: Or thinking about packing for the next day. Sometimes I'm in the middle of a song, thinking, "Where am I going tomorrow? What time are we leaving?" [both laugh]

RD: So, I think we agree from our mutual subscription to some attempted spiritual life that perfection is elusive and not really a goal worth pursuing. But I've been listening to your new album, Peachtree Road [Universal], and it is so damn good. It just feels so organic.

EJ: That's the word exactly. What I was striving for when we made this album was to take my band to Atlanta and make a record like we did in the old days, when we made Goodbye Yellow Brick Road [1973] and all those albums--where we actually got together and played as a band, as opposed to having everyone sit around all day waiting for people to do their individual bits. It's also the first album I've ever produced myself, so I was very conscious that I wanted it to sound really good; and sonically it does--organic, but also modern at the same time. RD: In producing Peachtree Road yourself, was the process of recording more burdensome for you than it normally is?

EJ: I didn't really find it burdensome, but I did find that, as the producer, you have to pay attention all the time. I suppose it's like when you direct your first film: You're really conscious that it's your first time and that you must get everything right. I had a great bunch of musicians and a great engineer who helped me out during that process. Some of the people who look after me were a bit concerned about me producing. So I said, "Well, listen. Hands up! If I haven't got it down by two weeks, then I'll say, 'Get me a producer.'" But it all went so well from day one. I have to give credit to Pat Leonard, who produced Songs From the West Coast [2002]. He really got me to concentrate on getting back to being Elton, just writing songs at the piano and doing them with a simpler lineup. I didn't want to overproduce. I wanted the feeling of a band playing to come through on the tracks, even when there are strings on songs like "My Elusive Drug." On a lot of tracks we also used singers from a gospel choir in Atlanta. They were absolutely incredible and gave the album the kind of warmth that it has. We didn't set out to write an album that sounds Southern, but this one does.

RD: These are Bernie Taupin's lyrics again, right?

EJ: They certainly are. We were originally going to make a different sort of album, and then Bernie said, "You know what? The world is in such a fuckin' state right now that we cannot just go out with lightweight stuff. The lyrics don't have to be political, but they do have to be meaningful." So, we decided that there had to be some optimism, that people needed a little bit of hope out there at the moment.

RD: It's funny because with Songs From the West Coast, people were a little taken aback. You had been going through a bit of a kinder, gentler season before that record was released, but then you came out with this right-from-then-ads album. With this album, though, it feels like you've really split the oak in a great way. It's optimistic, but so much of it has to do with the idea of "I can't change the world, but I can change the world in me."

EJ: Taupin and I don't collaborate on lyrics, but he knows what both of us are feeling. I don't know how he does it, but he manages to nail me every time. People have always said, "You should write your own lyrics. You're very verbose." But being verbose and being a lyric writer are two different things. I also love getting something in front of me that has a story. It's like listening to a radio play, where you use your imagination--my mind frees. I feel like these last two albums have taken me back to where I really belong. I've found that niche, and I can start again from there. It's very exciting. I'm 57, and I kind of feel for the first time like I'm really comfortable with everything I'm doing.