Elton John has let rip about the current state of pop music and slammed Cheryl Cole's musical efforts, calling it "crap" and "awful".
In a tirade about the current world of pop to the Mirror, the 63-year-old iconic musician, who recently became a father to son Zachary with civil partner David Furnish, ranted: “Frankly, they all sound the same. It’s hard to tell Girls Aloud from The Saturdays. And then there’s Cheryl Cole… It’s all c**p. British pop music like that is the worst, it’s just awful. It could have been made by anybody.”
The Tiny Dancer singer continued to lament about the lack of talent around, adding: “The records I love are all about musicianship. When you put a bunch of musicians in a room together, there’s human soul, there’s magic in there. That’s not happening now.”
But it didn't stop there.
He also criticised the X Factor, and while acknowledging some of the contestants had talent, he questioned whether many of them have the star power to make it.
And although Elton usually keeps abreast with popular culture, he had no idea who US reality star Kim Kardashian was!
He continued: “Bands who fly in vocals – f*** off! I want to kill them. Go and see Take That or Westlife and how much of that is live? I know Gary Barlow can sing – that solves that one.
“I think they genuinely do sing their stuff, but 99% of the other f****** Herberts out there can’t sing a note. Who the f*** is Kim Kardashian? Some stupid old tart from somewhere or other. Video killed music.
“Reality has killed talent. Can any X Factor people cut the mustard?”
But with Cheryl's recent solo success, we're not sure there's much truth to Elton's bad-tempered rant…
