Rocketman Elton John set to write new songs during Australia tour

Elton John plans to use his three-month tour of Australia to write songs for a new album, his long-time songwriting partner has revealed.

Exclusive: Elton John plans to follow up the extraordinary success of the Rocketman film by working on new songs during his three-month tour of Australia.

The legendary musician’s songwriting partner of more than 50 years, Bernie Taupin, revealed a new album is next on their creative to-do list.

The Rocketman film has again revitalised the much-loved songbook of John and Taupin with the Diamonds hit collection still riding high in the ARIA top 10 more than three months after the movie hit cinemas.

As Rocketman landed on streaming services including Foxtel On Demand and the DVD racks this month, Taupin said he is now under the pump to pen lyrics for future Elton John compositions.

John will kick off the Australian leg of his Farewell Yellow Brick Road tour in Perth in late November and finish in Sydney in early March.

Elton leaps to young royals’ defence

Bernie Taupin, right, has revealed a new album is on his and Elton John’s creative to-do list. Picture: Getty Images

“Before Elton goes to Australia, I am planning on writing a flood of material for him because he wants to write while he’s there,” Taupin said.

“He’s renting a home while he’s touring so he feels it would be a good time to see what we can come up with.

“We’re not done yet!”

Taupin has written the lyrics to the vast collection of John’s singles and album tracks from Your Song to Rocketman’s end credits track (I’m Gonna) Love Me Again.

His friendship with John and their unique creative relationship — they never work together in the same room — was showcased in the epic musical fantasy film starring Taron Egerton and Jamie Bell as the musical pair.

But Taupin is equally renowned in America for his art, describing his painting and multimedia works as his “day job”.

Before John lands in Australia, he will finally release his long-awaited memoir ME! in October.

Bernie Taupin has written the lyrics to the vast collection of Elton John’s singles and album tracks. Picture: Getty Images

For the Rocketman DVD release, John penned an essay titled Let Me Tell You A Story to explain why he agreed to pen his autobiography.

He credits the birth of his songs Zachary and Elijah for motivating him to tell his story, one he felt Taupin’s lyrics always told better than he could.

And he promises the book won’t be a sanitised version of events.

“There are moments in the book that I don’t come out of very well, where I seem completely disgusting and awful, because I was completely disgusting and awful, and there’s no reason to pretend otherwise,” he writes.

“I can’t stand books or movies about rock stars that give you some whitewashed version of reality, that are intent on telling you what a wonderful, perfect person they are. It’s boring, because it’s a lie: No one is perfect, and certainly no rock star is perfect.”

Rocketman is out now on 4K Ultra HD™, Blu-Ray™, DVD and Digital

Originally published as Rocketman Elton John set to write new songs during Australia tour