Bernie Taupin releases first solo album in 40 years

“I am what I call the credit card guy,” Bernie Taupin told The Guardian, describing a strange brand of fame that allows him to walk down the street entirely unnoticed until he pays with plastic. For nearly six decades, Taupin has written the lyrics behind the vast majority of Elton John’s 300 million record sales, yet he has managed to maintain a quiet anonymity far removed from the flamboyant security teams of his musical partner.

That quiet is shifting with the release of The Sea Has No Mercy, Taupin’s first solo album in 40 years. Recorded in Nashville at the home of producer Frank Liddell and featuring multi-platinum country star Lee Ann Womack on backing vocals, the record finds the 76-year-old writing not just the lyrics, but the music itself. NPR reported that Taupin did not think about writing for himself until recently, inspired in part by penning his 2023 autobiography Scattershot.

Stepping Up to the Mic in Nashville

The new album diverges sharply from Taupin’s previous sporadic solo efforts, such as his 1971 spoken-word debut, 1980’s He Who Rides the Tiger, 1987’s Tribe, and his 1990s midlife crisis band Farm Dogs. According to The Guardian, The Sea Has No Mercy delivers a dark, enthralling stew of folk, country, and ambient textures, driven by what Taupin calls a late-life manifesto. NPR noted that the closing track, a meditation on mortality and parenthood titled “One Hundred Ways,” features a duet with his 18-year-old daughter, Georgey Devon Taupin.

Taupin plans to support the release with a performance at Nashville’s Grand Ole Opry alongside his daughter, as reported by The Guardian. Despite the promotional circuit—which included an appearance on television’s The One Show and an interview with NPR—Taupin remains confident that his day-to-day anonymity will remain intact.

From Lincolnshire Roots to the Hollywood Vampires

Growing up in rural Lincolnshire, Taupin developed a lifelong fascination with American history and westerns, writing sepia-toned tales like “Ballad of a Well-Known Gun” and “Burn Down the Mission” for Elton John’s 1970 album Tumbleweed Connection before he had even set foot in the United States. Upon moving to California, he quickly immersed himself in the 1970s LA rock scene. Alongside Keith Moon, Ringo Starr, Harry Nilsson, and Alice Cooper, Taupin became a member of the Hollywood Vampires, a notorious drinking club that frequented the Rainbow Bar on the Sunset Strip.

While former Monkee Micky Dolenz claimed in a previous interview with The Guardian that the club’s hellraising reputation was exaggerated and that members mostly played golf, Taupin scoffed at the notion. “Golf?” he told The Guardian. “None of those guys could play golf except for Alice.”

Deep Assimilation Into American Rodeo Culture

Sports Illustrated detailed Taupin’s decades-long infatuation with rodeo culture, which began when he attended the 1995 Professional Bull Riders World Finals at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas and witnessed Tuff Hedeman’s violent collision with Bodacious. That initial experience led Taupin to compete professionally in cutting—using a horse to separate a cow from its herd—and to co-own a three-time bucking bull of the year named Little Yellow Jacket.

Today, Taupin tells The Guardian that he feels entirely assimilated into American culture, with no remaining British tendencies. That cultural immersion extends to his family: his daughter Charley works for the Professional Bull Riders and competes as a Texas rodeo star in barrel racing. With a career-spanning documentary due out at the end of the year and dinner plans alongside fellow former Hollywood Vampire Alice Cooper awaiting him in London, Taupin continues to balance his rare status as half of a legendary songwriting powerhouse with the simple luxury of being the credit card guy.

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