Elton John opens up about singing about his death

Sir Elton John has opened up about an incredibly emotional moment when he had to sing about his death.

Elton recalled that his long-time collaborator Bernie Taupin gave him a new song lyric and he began singing but realized after a while that the song was about his demise. The Cold Heart hitmaker “lost it” after that.

During his appearance on the Graham Norton Show, Elton said: “Bernie Taupin gave me a lyric for a song called, 'When This Whole World Is Done With Me', and I'm writing the verse (music) quite quickly, and I think this is a really lovely verse.”

“And then I get to the chorus, and I find that it's about my death, my demise,” he shared.

“And as a 76 year old man, which I was at that time, and having children and having a husband, mortality, and you think about, 'How long have I got? How long? I hope I've got, much longer than maybe I've got,” he continued.

“And so by the time I got to the chorus and suddenly realized that I started singing it (and) I lost it for 45 minutes,” he revealed. “It was a very, very heavy moment for me.”

“After 45 minutes of being consoled, I was okay, but I recorded the next day... When you're singing about being washed out to sea and the end of your life, it took me by surprise,” he noted.

“It's a really lovely song. I did it all in one take the next day. I just came in and did its vocal and piano at the same time. And I put a brass band at the end of it, because I've always loved brass bands, colliery bands, because their music is rather sad - the sound of it,” he added.

Elton John’s new record Who Believes In Angels? will be released on April 4.