Charlie Puth’s new personal rule on songwriting is partly thanks to blunt feedback from Elton John. Learn about the Rocket Man’s criticism, which Charlie described as a “gut punch.”
Giving painfully honest opinions—that’s what friends are for.

In an April 13 interview on The Ellen DeGeneres Show, Charlie Puth reflected on criticism he received from Elton John that caused him to reevaluate himself as an artist.

“When you write a song, it’s important to tell the truth, and I wasn’t kinda doing that in 2019. And the person who kind of awoken my senses was none other than Elton John,” Charlie explained. He said that he first met Elton at Craig’s restaurant in L.A. and that the “Rocket Man” singer told him, “You know, your music sucked in 2019. It wasn’t good.”

So how did Charlie take this brutal, unsolicited feedback?

“It was like a gut punch, but I had been thinking that as well. It was kind of a wake-up call,” Charlie said. “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.”
Charlie has adopted a new music-making method, in which he documents his process of creating music on TikTok—including his new song “Light Switch,” which was inspired by the sound of an actual light switch.

In a February interview with E! News, Charlie reflected on the infectious track born from a simple sound.

“I always knew I wanted to make a song with a sound effect in it,” Charlie said. “You see my face mid-TikTok as I start to realize, ‘Wait, this is actually kind of good.'”

Now after finding a light at the end of the tunnel (and also finding the light switch), Charlie told Ellen DeGeneres that his new album will be titled Charlie because “in the spirit of telling the truth, it’s the most me music ever.”