Charlie Puth reveals "wake-up call" from Sir Elton John

By Neil Wilkes, Editor-in-chief | 14 April 2022

Charlie Puth admits that criticism of his music by Sir Elton John inspired him to get writing new material.

Charlie Puth has revealed that some artistic criticism from Sir Elton John left him feeling like he had suffered a "gut punch".

The 30-year-old is known to be a close friend of Elton and often stays with the music legend and his family at their home, while they also released a song together, 'After All', last year.

Speaking on The Ellen DeGeneres Show on Wednesday, Puth admitted that during one of their first encounters, Elton told him that his most recent music "sucked".

"When you write a song, it's important to tell the truth, and I wasn't kinda doing that in 2019," Puth said. "And the person who kind of awoken my senses was none other than Elton John."

He continued: "It was like a gut punch, but I had been thinking that as well. It was kind of a wake-up call.

"I was in denial a little bit and then the whole world shut down and I was able to kinda sit with my new way of making music and just decided that I would never put out a song again if it weren't the truth."

Puth released new single 'That's Hilarious' last week and plans to put out his third studio album, Charlie, later this year.