Elton John has 'completely different way' of songwriting now due to vision loss

The Your Song star is blind in his right eye and has limited vision in his left, so has adopted a “completely different way” of getting music and lyrics down on paper.

Songwriting is a “whole different ballgame” for Elton John now that he’s got such severe vision problems, his friend and writing partner Bernie Taupin has revealed.

The Your Song star is blind in his right eye and has limited vision in his left, so has adopted a “completely different way” of getting music and lyrics down on paper.

Speaking to Rolling Stone about Elton’s new music, Bernie said: “Well, he’s got a record coming out, I think, at the beginning of next year that I contributed to.

“But I literally don’t know when that is. He did it with Andrew Watt again. And he wrote it in a completely different way simply because of his eyesight problem.”

Bernie went on to explain that Elton “can’t read lyrics if they’re on the piano”.

He added: “So he basically came up with instrumental tracks and threw basically three or four of them at me and said, ‘Can you do something with these?’ Which I contributed to. But he’s also worked with a couple of other people on there, which is great.

“So it’s a whole different ballgame for him.” 

Elton contracted a serious eye infection in France in 2024, after which he lost the vision in his right eye and the vision in his left was also affected.

He opened up about the vision loss in a post on Instagram as he wrote: ““I can’t read. I can’t see my boys playing rugby and soccer, and it has been a very stressful time because I’m used to soaking it all up. It’s distressing.

“You get emotional, but you have to get used to it because I’m lucky to have the life I have. I still have my wonderful family, and I can still see something out of here,.

“You say to yourself, just get on with it.”

Elsewhere in the interview, Bernie stated that neither he nor Elton are interested in selling the rights to their music.

He sighed: “We don’t need the money. We both have offspring, and why don’t we leave it up to them?”

Elton has two children with husband David Furnish, while Bernie shares two daughters with his fourth wife Heather Kidd.

This article was first published by Bang Showbiz and is republished here with permission.