Sir Elton John has admitted the likes of Lorde and Billie Eilish “blew [his] mind” when he first heard them.
The ‘Your Song’ legend recently hit 300 episode of his show ‘Rocket Hour’ and he explained how it was a chance for him to discover new music.
Speaking to Zane Lowe on Apple Music, he said: “When I first heard the first thing I ever heard from Lorde, which was ‘Royals,’ I just thought it was unlike anything I’d ever heard before.
“It just blew my mind. It was so simple and yet so moving.
“The same thing with Billie Eilish, it was like, when I hear her records, there’s nothing. The space and the feel of it.”
Elton – who also namedropped the likes of Dua Lipa and Channel Tres – admitted he gets inspired by younger artists
He added: “It’s wonderful because you think, ‘God, they’re 16 or 17 or 15 years of age. How do they do that?’ It keeps me animated and it keeps me so happy.”
And he even suggested getting exposed to new music through the show has even made him “look younger”.
He said: “It’s brought me into contact with so many great new artists who’ve become friends. It’s kept me so up to date with what’s going on.
“In fact, I think I look better now than I did six years ago when I started it. So it’s like, good music makes you look younger!”
Meanwhile, the music icon – who pens his tracks with longtime songwriting partner Bernie Taupin – recently insisted he “can’t write lyrics”, and if he tried they’d end up being crude.
He said: “I don’t see myself as a gay artist, you see, as such because I don’t write lyrics. I can’t write lyrics.
“But I love what pop culture did for gay music, starting with Jimmy Somerville and Boy George.
“If I wrote something, it would be like: ‘I’d like to suck your k*** behind the bike shed,’ and there’s just not a market for that!”