Elton John Told Charlie Puth That His Music “Sucked” & Puth Agreed

When Elton John speaks to you, you listen — even if it’s not the most positive encounter. During an interview on The Ellen DeGeneres Show on April 13, Charlie Puth revealed that he once received some harsh feedback from the “Tiny Dancer” singer before they eventually worked together on John’s 2021 album The Lockdown Sessions. Puth said John approached him at popular Los Angeles eatery Craig’s and told him, “You know, your music sucked in 2019. It wasn’t good.”

While Puth admitted that the music icon’s comments were a “gut punch,” and some artists may never want to sing again after being burned like that, he actually agreed with him. “I had been thinking that as well,” he told. DeGeneres. “I was going through a messy breakup, and I think that was going alongside it. And it was kind of a wake-up call a little bit. I was in denial a little bit.” During lockdown, the “Attention” singer took John’s words to heart while making music, which resulted in his upcoming album Charlie. “In the spirit of telling the truth, it’s the most ‘me’ music ever,” he added.

John’s remarks might seem surprising considering how much he champions young artists, but it was his honest criticism that eventually made him grow closer to Puth and collaborate with him on their 2021 track “After All.” Puth is just one of many artists on John’s Lockdown Sessions album, which includes Miley Cyrus, Stevie Nicks, and Lil Nas X.

“I was in Los Angeles during our first lockdown when we came from Australia and I was in a restaurant and I got introduced to Charlie Puth, who I love but I hadn’t met before, and found out that he lived four doors away from me,” John told Bustle in September 2021. “He said, ‘Well, I’m doing nothing. You’re doing nothing. Why don’t you come up to my studio and let's see if we can write a song?’ So I did.”

After working with John, Puth is now warning musicians to only write songs that feel true to themselves. “The most important thing you can do, for all the songwriters watching this, when you write a song, it’s important to tell the truth,” he told DeGeneres. “I wasn’t really doing that in 2019. The person who awoke my senses was none other than Elton John.”