Charlie Puth got all the wrong “Attention” from Sir Elton John.
Puth stopped by Ellen on Wednesday (April 13) to perform his latest hit “Light Switch,” and while chatting with Ellen Degeneres, the singer revealed the comment that inspired him to make his most truthful music yet.
“The most important thing you can do, for all the songwriters watching this, when you write a song, it’s important to tell the truth. I wasn’t really doing that in 2019,” he explained of the time following the release of his 2018 album, Voicenotes. “The person who awoken my sense was none other than Elton John.”
Puth went on to explain that he met the iconic “Rocketman” singer at the popular West Hollywood restaurant, Craig’s, where Puth recalled John saying to him, “You know, your music sucked in 2019. It wasn’t good.”
While John’s thoughts were a “gut punch” to Puth, the quality of his music was something he had already been thinking about. “I was going through a messy breakup, and I think that was also going alongside it. It was kind of a wake-up call. I was in denial a little bit,” he explained. “Then, the whole world shut down and I was able to sit with my new way of making music and just decided I would never put out a song again if it weren’t the truth.”
Puth shared that his upcoming album Charlie because, “in the spirit of telling the truth, it’s the most ‘me’ music ever.”
Watch Puth’s “Light Switch” performance below.
