Charlie Puth is being more honest in his music than he ever has, and now he’s revealed why. The young rising star, flying high on the success of his current single “Light Switch,” stopped by Ellen on Wednesday to discuss his music, and mentioned his motivation for his newfound honesty:
“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. The person who awoken my sense was none other than Elton John.”
The run-in with Elton John came about a year after Puth released his album Voicenotes. They ran into each other at a restaurant in West Hollywood, where John said to him, “You know, your music sucked in 2019. It wasn’t good.”
The criticism hit Puth like a ton of bricks. But instead of letting those words crush him into defeat, he turned them into motivation for what came next:
“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. 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.”
That truth is now what Puth is sharing with the world. First on his single “Light Switch,” and then fully on his upcoming album Charlie.
Are you a fan of the new musically honest Charlie Puth? Are you as excited about his upcoming album as we are?