Elton John readies album of collaborations with Stevie Wonder, Eddie Vedder, Glen Campbell, others

Elton John has recruited some of the other biggest names in music for his next album, “The Lockdown Sessions,” a collection of collaborations the British artist recorded during the coronavirus pandemic.

“The last thing I expected to do during lockdown was make an album. But, as the pandemic went on, one-off projects kept cropping up,” the 74-year-old singer and pianist said in a press release.

Those projects include multiple new pairings involving the venerable recording artist and numerous other acclaimed performers spanning multiple genres from rock, pop and rap, to country and classical.

Musicians featured on the record include Stevie Wonder, Pearl Jam’s Eddie Vedder, Miley Cyrus, Yo-Yo Ma, Nicki Minaj, Dua Lipa, Lil Nas X, and members of Metallica and the Red Hot Chili Peppers, among others.

Also included on the album is “I’m Not Gonna Miss You,” a track featuring late country artist Glen Campbell, who died in 2017. It was not clear when the song was recorded and/or mixed.

Mr. John said that some of the recording sessions were conducted remotely, while others were done under “very stringent safety regulations,” such as working together in-person but separated by glass screens.

“But all the tracks I worked on were really interesting and diverse, stuff that was completely different to anything I’m known for, stuff that took me out of my comfort zone into completely new territory,” he said in a press release cited by Rolling Stone.

“I realized there was something weirdly familiar about working like this. At the start of my career, in the late 60s, I worked as a session musician. Working with different artists during lockdown reminded me of that. I’d come full circle: I was a session musician again. And it was still a blast,” he said.

The Campbell collaboration “I’m Not Gonna Miss You” is set to be released Oct. 22. The album’s first single, “Cold Heart (PNAU Remix)” with Dua Lipa, is out now and debuted at No. 81 on the Billboard Hot 100 last week.