Eminem and Elton John have been friends for a minute now. So much so, that John is comfortable enough greeting Em with a warm "how are you gorgeous thing?" Such was indeed the case during Em's recent appearance on Elton John's Rocket Hour Show, which happened to center around Detroit's musical culture. Considering Eminem's prominent status in the Motor City musical canon, it was only appropriate for him to call in for a brief conversation, in which topics ranged from Kamikaze to the divisive Donald Trump BET cypher.
"You have a late night in the studio or what?" asks Elton. "Yeah," replies Em, and like that, rumors of a new album commence. While Em doesn't elaborate on what he's been cooking up, Elton takes a moment to appreciate the present. "First of all congratulations on Kamakaze, which I really love. For me it's just the grittiest thing you've done for a while," he says. "Just you know, being a big fan of your gritty stuff, I am very happy."
Elton also goes on to praise Em's live performance, reminiscing on their iconic duet at the 2001 Grammy Awards. "I've known you now since we did the Grammys together, and I remember coming down to the valley in L.A. to rehearse with you," says Elton. "Obviously we did "Stan" together. And when I saw you rehearsing, I got chills up my spine. I hadn't seen anybody do that kind of thing to me since I still Mick Jagger in the early days."
Eventually, Elton John queues up "Lucky You," once again praising Eminem's recent body of work. "I do like a little bit of feistiness. I'm very happy that you said you don't get to use the word f****t anymore because I think you don't need to," he admits, referring to Em's revelation in the wake of "Fall". "You're bigger than that. I'm glad you said that and cleared that up and that's great kudos to you for that."
Em proceeds to explain his reaction to Revival's tepid response, now that hindsight has kicked in. "I think I realized that what people probably have gotten accustomed to is me taking some risks, and I think that Revival was probably just too tame of an album or too...I guess tame." Elton comes back with some wisdom, stating "sometimes a non-success can spur you to do bigger things."
Salute to one of the game's unlikely duos. Hopefully word on Eminem's recent studio endeavors can surface sooner rather than later.