Elton John spoke to his new favourite band Yard Act on his Rocket Hour radio show this week, telling the group he would “love to catch up” with them in person.
John praised the rising Leeds outfit during an interview with NME last October, describing their musical style as “a different ballgame”. He added: “I can’t do it but I love it and I wonder how they do it.”
Earlier this month, Yard Act frontman James Smith told NME that it was “mind-blowing” to receive an endorsement from the legendary artist. “I want to write some lyrics for him,” he said. “I’m hoping we’ll bump into him at some point.”
The band also shared a cover of the singer’s classic single ‘Tiny Dancer’, “‘cause our new best pal Elton has been so kind about us in the press recently”.
With their debut album ‘The Overload’ in a tight race to this week’s UK Number One, Yard Act finally got to chat with their most famous fan on his Apple Music 1 show, Rocket Hour.
“As you probably know, I’m a big fan and have been since I first heard your first record,” John told the band.
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“‘Fixer Upper’ was the first thing I heard, and then I saw the video, and then I fell in love with your lyrics, and I fell in love with how you delivered the song. And I just thought, ‘God, this is such a breath of fresh air’.”
He continued: “And I like the fact that young acts are actually writing about what we’ve become, what the world is like now, how unjust it is, how awful it is. As you know, I can’t write a lyric to save my life, so I’m very envious of your ability to do that with a sense of humour, but also hitting it home.”
John went on to attribute Yard Act’s skyrocketing success to the group’s “incredible energy”, explaining: “It’s not boring, it’s right in your face, and I think that’s brilliant and I think we need more of it.”
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He continued: “I would love to catch up with you and see you in person, buy you dinner, come to a show. And I wish you all the best, all the band and everything.”
Elsewhere, Smith told John the story of how Yard Act came to be. “We just started writing demos together – and that was in September 2019 – and we were just demoing and talking about it and didn’t really know what it was or what it was going to become at that point,” he said.
The full conversation is set to air on Apple Music 1 tomorrow (January 29) at 5pm GMT. You can tune in here.
Yard Act’s ‘The Overload’ is up against Years & Years‘ ‘Night Call’ in the battle for the UK top spot. The results will be announced by the Official Charts Company at 5.45pm today (January 28) and on BBC Radio 1 from 4pm.