Elton John Makes a Bold Comparison Between Taylor Swift and the Beatles

As a living icon who's been making music for over five decades, Elton John knows a thing or two about the industry—so it's not surprising that he has his own opinions about today's current superstars, such as Taylor Swift .

In a recent interview with Variety at the Toronto Film Festival to promote his new documentary, Elton John: Never Too Late , the "Rocket Man" singer raved about a number of young female singers, sharing which artists he would be open to collaborating with.

“There are plenty of young singers around. I mean, this has been the summer of the great female singers and songwriters," Elton said. " Sabrina Carpenter , Billie Eilish , Taylor Swift, Olivia Rodrigo , Charli XCX and Gracie Abrams —they’ve just ruled it. They’ve made records that are really good songs, and they brought a lot of joy to the people. And the songs are really good songs, so I’m happy to sing with any of those people.”

When asked whether he'd want to work with Swift in particular, Elton said, “She’s a great songwriter, she’s a great artist and she’s a phenomenon. I’ve never seen a phenomenon like that since the Beatles, and she works her ass off, so good luck. Good luck to her.”

Related: Elton John Provides Health Update After Revealing 'Severe' Condition Impacted His Vision

In the same interview, the musician revealed that without his influence, the Oscar-winning song "Can You Feel the Love Tonight?" would have been cut from The Lion King .

“The whole Disney team came down to Atlanta and showed me a rough cut of the nearly finished film, and there was no ‘Can You Feel the Love Tonight,'” Elton told Variety . “So I asked, ‘Where’s “Can You Feel the Love Tonight?”‘”

“And they go, ‘Well, we just couldn’t find a place for it,’ and I go, ‘It’s a love song. Every Disney animation film has a great love song. You really ought to reconsider this,'” Elton continued. “I was quite astonished that it wasn’t there, and to Disney’s credit, they went back and found a place for it, and it won the Oscar.”

Next: Why Elton John Did Not Accept the Emmy That Made Him an EGOT