Brandi Carlile on Writing Elton John's 'Never Too Late' Doc Theme: 'He Doesn't Like to Say Nice Stuff About Himself'

Elton John knows there was only one person who could help him write the music for his upcoming documentary epic that tells the story of his meteoric rise — and that was Brandi Carlile.

"The Story" singer Carlile, 43, is featured on the soundtrack for the upcoming Disney+ documentary Elton John: Never Too Late in the form of the film's title track. According to a press release from Disney, the song "Never Too Late" is heard over the documentary's credits, and it played a huge role in the direction of the project.

The pair collaborated extensively to come up with the track's lyrics, per the press release, meeting for dinner many times during the summer of 2023 after John, 77, had finished his Farewell Yellow Brick Road tour. After Carlile saw a rough cut of the documentary for the first time, the song was born.

Speaking with Billboard about the song and accompanying documentary on Friday, Nov. 15, John revealed that he thought Carlile's song “just summed up the whole of the documentary perfectly."

"What she saw she wrote down in a very concise way and summed up the whole of that hour and 40 minutes of time in a lyric, which was incredible," the pop star added.

“I was moved by what I was watching. I especially loved some of that historical footage, and it just sent me back throughout my childhood,” Carlile told the outlet of her first screening of the doc. "I felt like my life admiring Elton just sort of flashed before my eyes. And I came to this conclusion that I had something to say about him and that I wanted him to say it."

According to Carlile, the "I'm Still Standing" singer's "forward thinking" and the inspirational messages in the film are what kept her feeling reassured about the project and so confident in her abilities to write the lyrics for "Never Too Late."

"I love that Elton doesn’t like to self-reflect," she said of the musician, per Billboard. "He’s too forward-thinking. He’s too forward-moving. And I’m so inspired by that ruggedness. I don’t think ruggedness is a word that gets associated with Elton John quite enough. He’s really f---ing tough and he’s overcome a lot. And I just wanted to sort of take pause and slow it down and write a lyric about that for him to sing because he doesn’t like to say nice stuff about himself."

Carlile continued: “I think I took a page out of his book and just didn’t look back and I just gave them to him. But now, in retrospect, yeah, that should have been f---ing terrifying because he’s absolutely a cornerstone of everything that I am, not just musically, but he’s influenced me as an activist and as a mother and a gay person living in the world."

"Never Too Late" is available to stream now. The film Elton John: Never Too Late's U.S. and U.K. theatrical run begins Friday, Nov. 15 and will debut on Disney+ Dec. 13.