Elton John: Lion King changed my life

The superstar singer helped compose the soundtrack for the animated 1994 movie, which follows the adventures of a young lion called Simba.

Elton was asked to lend a hand by his friend, the lyricist Tim Rice, and says he did not have to think twice.

But he is nonplussed that potential collaborators ignore him as they think he will not be interested in working with them.

“Funny thing is, when you get established and you’re older, people get afraid to ask you to do things. They say, ‘Oh he won’t do that.’ Like when Tim Rice called me to do the Lion King in 1993, it changed the course of my career and my life,” the 63-year-old told Famecrawler.

Elton revealed that Tim persuaded him to pursue the project when others weren’t so keen. And he added that the chance phone call eventually helped to open a number of other windows in his life.

“[Tim said] ‘Disney said you’d never do this. And you’re a friend of mine and I told them you will.’ I said, ‘Tim, I’ve worked with you before. I love you. Of course I’ll do it,’” he explained. “I’d never done something like this before. And if he hadn’t of phoned me, and asked me to do it then I would never have written four stage musicals, three animated musicals, scores for movies.” While the singer is indebted to the Grammy Award-winner, he was adamant that he loses business thanks to his age. Elton promises younger stars, though, that he is usually ready for more work.

“I owe Tim Rice big time,” he said. “When you get to the stature of what I am, an old fart, people don’t tend to ring you up and say, ‘Will you play on my record.’ And I’m always willing to do that.”