Elton John is a damn good interviewer, so it's only right he got a chance to chop it up with friend and collaborator Eminem ahead of the release of Revival. For a predictably candid Interview feature shot by Craig McDean, the two touched on everything from sobriety to that Trump-bashing BET cypher. Em even shouted out a few artists whose recent work has impressed him.
"Your sobriety day is in my diary," John said after Em informed him he was likely "on drugs" when the two met to discuss their now-classic "Stan" performance at the Grammys. "I'm so proud of you. I'm 27 years clean, and when you get clean, you see things in a different way. It makes your life so much more manageable. It seems to have made all the difference—I can tell when I speak to you."
Em agreed. "Getting clean made me grow up," he said. "I feel like all the years that I was using, I wasn't growing as a person."
Asked to reveal a few artists he feels are doing "great stuff" at the moment, Em had plenty of people to praise. "J. Cole," he said. "Travis Scott. Kendrick is great. My friend Royce da 5'9″ is incredible. Joyner Lucas is really good. Tech N9ne, too."
John had some praise of his own for Em's "The Storm," which Em revealed was originally planned to be performed onstage at the BET Awards. "One of the things we were trying to mimic was Public Enemy's 'You're Gonna Get Yours' cover," Em said. "I don't know if anybody got that, but that's kind of the feel that we were going for." The lyrics, Em added, are about having "the right to stand up to oppression" and a POTUS who doesn't care about the country. "He is not the president for all of us, he is the president for some of us," Em said.
Check the full Eminem x Elton John discussion, during which they lovingly greet each other as "bastard" and "cunt," right here.
Revival is out Dec. 15. Earlier this week, Em shared the surprisingly 2 Chainz-less tracklist:
