On 6 September the first screening of Elton John’s biopic Never Too Late was premiered at the Toronto Film Festival. It was the first time that it was revealed a co-penned song (lyrics and vocal by Brandi Carlile) of Brandi And Elton John was the title song that ran in the end credits.

Throughout the promotion for the film, leading up to the premiere on Disney + on December 13th, 2024 ,Brandi Carlile and Elton John sat down for several interviews and TV appearances discussing the making of the song and how it came to be.

Chris Willman from Variety magazine (a long time fan and supporter of Brandi Carlile) interviewed the two in his article. Asking Elton about the origins of the song, Elton says:

Elton John: Well, Brandi and Catherine and her girls come to visit us every year in the south of France, and David (Furnish) showed them an early cut of the documentary. Unbeknownst to me, she started writing a lyric for what she thought would be a good song for the documentary, and I had no idea she was writing it until she came up with the finished thing. I was thrilled with the lyric, and I was thrilled that she wrote it because she was inspired by what she saw. Do I have that right, Brandi?

Brandi Carlile: Of course, Elton, yeah. I watched that documentary and I was so blown away by it and kind of brought to tears. But I think it’s funny that you mentioned the thing about it being tough, because I think one of the really cool and interesting things about Elton is he’s so incredibly tough, and based on what I’d seen, I wanted to write this song that just showed his tenacity and perseverance and constant commitment to just overcome.

You can read the rest of the interview here.

Elton and Brandi also appeared on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert to chat about the song and the film.