Greta Van Fleet have spoken about some valuable advice they received from Elton John during the singer’s Oscar party in 2017.
Speaking with Kevin Vargas for Loudwire Nights, the band’s bassist Sam Kiszka and drummer Danny Wagner recalled their meeting with John and the advice that he gave them, which has stuck.
“He was pretty much like, ‘Light it up. Do it. Own it. Don’t be shy. Just go for it.’ So after that we were like, ‘OK, we’ll go for it,’” said Kiszka. “So that’s something you kind of have to remember is to give it your all and kind of create that person out there.”
Kiszka continued: “I think everyone’s getting into a little bit more creating almost a different person up on the stage. Daniel and Josh have really been into rhinestones and sparkles and creating a whole different thing for yourself onstage and it kind of transports us there.”
“It was probably the best out of all our years in our career that we could have met someone like that,” Wagner added.
“It was at the very beginning. And he did give us that advice. He told us to flaunt what you’ve got while you’ve got it, essentially. This guy is a hero to us. He’s someone that amongst all the artists that we grew up listening to, he was one we held on a high pedestal. So to hear something like that from a person like that, you don’t take that lightly.”
Earlier this month, Greta Van Fleet announced details of their third album ‘Starcatcher’. The follow-up to 2021’s ‘The Battle At Garden’s Gate’ will land on July 21 and was produced in Nashville by the band and Grammy-winning producer Dave Cobb.
“We had this idea that we wanted to tell these stories to build a universe,” Wagner said in a statement.
“We wanted to introduce characters and motifs and these ideas that would come about here and there throughout our careers through this world.”
During an interview with Heavy Consequence late last year, Sam Kiszka said of the album: “It’s conceptually going back to almost the days in the garage, with the raw energy of the sound.”
The Van Fleet bassist went on to reveal that the album will expand on the band’s sound “because we’re the best musicians we’ve ever been.”