The British icon is working on Gaga’s fourth album, due for release by the end of 2016. Sir Elton John has confirmed that he’s working with Lady GaGa on her new album due out later this year, saying that he got involved because he felt her last record Artpop ‘was not a good album’.
In a new interview on Zane Lowe’s Beats 1 radio station, the 68 year old British pop icon said that he was having a writing session with Gaga this week, and said that the material he’d heard already reminded him of her early hits. She’s also reported to have hired big names such as Mark Ronson, RedOne and even Giorgio Moroder to produce the new album. ‘I’m writing with Lady Gaga tomorrow,’ Elton revealed, ‘I’ve heard two songs, which are killer. They’re just great songs. It’s like back to the early stuff of hers – like ‘You and I’ and the Bruce Springsteen one, as I always call it, ‘Bad Romance’.’
Asked about his motivation for doing so, apart from his long-standing friendship with Gaga, he said that her third album Artpop, a comparative commercial failure upon release in 2013 compared to her first two records, ‘was not a good album and I think she would admit that.’
However, Elton reckons she’s recovered her standing in the eyes of the public because of what she’s done since then. ‘In the midst of that, she did three things which were kind of amazing. She did the whole tour and album with Tony Bennett, which did amazingly well. She sang the Julie Andrews tribute at the Oscars, which everybody loved. And she was on ‘American Horror Story’.’
Gaga, who recently won a Golden Globe for her ‘AHS’ role, said back in October 2015 when she and Elton shared the front cover of Billboard magazine that he was a role model to her. She’s also godmother to his and David Furnish’s two sons, Zachary and Elijah. ‘He inspires me in ways I could not even begin to list properly,’ she said. ‘He is my friend, he is like a parent. He looks out for me, he was there for me during the hardest times in my life. He doesn’t allow me to slip into depression without making sure that I’m okay.’
