Sir Elton John has revealed he is jetting off to Australia to write his first new music in nearly four years.
The 72-year-old’s last original studio album was 2016’s Wonderful Crazy Night – the 30th of his career.
Sir Elton said he had starved himself of songwriting so he could let loose his pent up creativity when he returned to the studio.
Speaking to presenter Tim Lihoreau on Classic FM, the Rocket Man singer said he had never suffered from writer’s block.
However, he said he had recently abandoned songs because they were “not meant to be”.
He said: “There are some lyrics that I have tried to write but I couldn’t write them. So I just… that’s not meant to be, so I’ll just move on to something else.
“But usually they are done really quickly, because I write very quickly but I starve myself from writing.
“I don’t write very often. I write after every two years. In the early days, it was every other week but now it’s … I don’t write very often.
“I’m writing in Australia when I’m going to be there. I haven’t written an album for two or three years, three or four years, so I’m looking forward to writing.
“Never know what to expect, that’s the great thing about writing with this style. I never know what I’m going to get. So the process has never gotten dull.
“It’s always been, ‘What’s this one going to be?’ And, you know, you make so many albums and people say, well the albums are not as good as they used to be.”
Sir Elton, who grew up as Reg Dwight in Pinner, Middlesex, said he had made some of his finest music for his past four albums but people had become “lazy” and had not listened properly.
He said: “Well, people are very lazy, they don’t listen, and some of the things I’ve done on the last three or four records are some of my finest things.
“When I do stop touring and I do decide to do a concert again somewhere, they will be the sort of songs I will be playing.
“I’ve played enough of the obvious stuff and there’s plenty of things that I think are better but the public don’t know about.
“So it’s a bit like trying to start again or trying to find an obscure piece of classical music that people don’t often hear, instead of (composers Tomaso) Albinoni or (Johann) Pachelbel or something like that.”
Sir Elton said his favourite Christmas carol was O Come, All Ye Faithful performed by the King’s College Choir, which he said always makes him “shed a tear”.
A Life At The Piano: An Elton John Special will be broadcast on December 21 from 9pm on Classic FM.