INGRID SISCHY: Typically, you've had an uncanny ability to predict what summer music would take off. So what's been on your mind, musicwise?

ELTON JOHN: There's a track by a band called Trik Turner, "Friends & Family," [on Trik Turner, RCA] that I'm crazy about. It's just fresh sounding, one of those records that you hear and think, "What is that?" I think it's going to be huge. And there's this cute white boy from Winnipeg on Motown named Remy Shand; he's made the most soulful album I've heard in quite some time [The Way I Feel]--it's like a mixture of Marvin Gaye, Al Green, and Curtis Mayfield. It's a word-of-mouth album a bit like India. Arie's in that it's not particularly commercial, but stay with it and you will love it forever. And then there are these two guys from England called Heist, who've made the most fabulous album: very simple, very groovy dance stuff, but with acoustic guitars. It's called Midweek Sex [Columbia]--every song is about sex! Let me state that my management company is going to look after them, but that's not why I love their record. Theirs could be the album of the summer. There are still plenty of other things coming out, like a new Sheryl Crow album. Sheryl just keeps getting better. I'm really looking forward to what Eminem's got in store with his new album. And I'm looking forward to seeing his movie with Kim Basinger.

IS: Do you think music's gotten to a point where it doesn't know color?

EJ: Yes, I do. I hate saying this, but these albums by Remy Shand and Heist sound much more soulful to me than any from the big black singers of the moment. Apart from Mary J. Blige's and India. Arie's, there hasn't been a great black vocalist album for a long, long time. Although nothing beats a great black singer, rap, like soul, isn't limited to black artists; I think white people have just as much soul in their music. Sheryl Crow is so soulful in the way that Dusty Springfield was, and David Gray's White Ladder is one of the most soulful albums you'll hear from the last few years. Soul comes from within--it doesn't matter what color you are if you possess it and have the feeling and the voice. No one has more soul than when Eric Clapton plays the guitar, or Jeff Beck, or Jimmy Page. Bob Dylan has soul. Soul is primarily attributed to people like Otis Redding and the great rhythm and blues artists, but now soul is about being your own person. For instance, Remy Shand pays tribute to all the foundations lai d down by the great black male soul singers, but he has his own style as well.

IS: With so many of the great musicians, you couldn't tell what race they were. That was one of the things about Dusty Springfield: At first, listeners didn't know whether she was black or white, or even if she was a man or a woman!

The record industry has a history of being racist and trapping artists within stereotypes, but have you ever observed racism among musicians themselves?

EJ: No. Never.

IS: It's one of the great things about music.

EJ: There has been racism among musicians but it's very minute; I've never personally encountered it. I saw a television program about female rockabilly singers from the '50s--people like Wanda Jackson and Brenda Lee. Wanda Jackson was interviewed and she was great. She had a black piano player with her, and when they played certain places he had to stay onstage during the break because they wouldn't let him use the restroom. Wanda asked him, "Why are you doing this?" And he said, "Because I love to play so much." But when she and the band turned up at a place where the pianist wasn't allowed to play because he was black, she said, "Well, then none of us are playing." In fact, I started off in a little white band from the suburbs of London backing up people like Billy Stewart and Patti LaBelle--artists I idolized. They couldn't have been nicer to us, and they were our heroes. These are the people who have been literally ripped off by the major labels and that's why the Rhythm and Blues Foundation was started: to make sure these performers get some of the royalties they should have.

IS: At this moment, it feels like the music industry is so screwed up that no one gets what they deserve--except for the wrong people, who get more.

EJ: A lot of white artists have been ripped off, but not as often as black artists. I remember doing shows with artists who didn't have enough money to get their clothes out of the drycleaner before they came on tour. Hopefully that's changing now, and black artists are getting their fair share, too. It's great to see people like Russell Simmons step into the industry and help people get what they deserve.

IS: What in pop music is thought to be completely "white associated"? Anything?

EJ: You don't get as much black heavy metal, or black bands that play rock 'n' roll. They are few and far between. Ever since Jimi Hendrix, it's been a bit thin on the ground. The closest is Outkast, probably--the stuff they wear and the fun they're having with it reminds me of when I was in my peacock days, wearing all those wonderful outfits. They're wearing these fabulous clothes, not just loose, baggy sports clothes and gold chains. Whenever I see a photo of Outkast, it makes me feel great because I think these guys have something special, and they're different from the rest. Then there's Lenny Kravitz, who has been a leader for a long time--he's been the black guy doing rock 'n' roll, but with soul.

IS: So one of the good things about this moment in music is that color is becoming invisible.

EJ: I completely agree. I abhor racism--I'd never listen to people's music and say, "Wow, they're black!" or "Wow, they're white!" If I like it, I like it. This moment is great because I love to hear fusion: when people enter other people's cultures, it's always interesting. I wish it would happen a bit more. Macy Gray, for example, reminds me of Sly & the Family Stone in their prime. They were a mixture of funk, rock 'n' roll, and soul, and they crossed over; Macy is one of the only performers upholding that tradition. Her second album didn't do as well as the first, but she's still a major artist, and she's currently in the studio recording her next.

IS: It's never mattered whether or not a record that meant something to me did well commercially. With most people, when they fall in love with an album, the last thing on their minds is how it's doing on the charts!

EJ: One of the greatest albums--definitely in the top 10 of all time--is Grace by Jeff Buckley, and it didn't really sell much. It's the most perfect album-kind of like a dream, as if it came from someone from another planet possessing this incredible voice, power and soul. And yet it wasn't a commercial success.

IS: In art or fashion, if you have five years where you make it and people are really interested in you, you've already got a career. If you have 10 to 15 years, you're one in a million. If you have 20 or more, you're a rare genius. Tell me about career longevity in the music industry.

EJ: Well, it's a fickle business, and things have changed so much because of the way that radio now divides everything into categories. There's either "AC," which means "adult contemporary," which means softer music, or "hard AC," which is not quite heavy but not quite soft, either. Then there's pop, as well as "urban," which is a euphemism for "black." I hate the category thing with music--I hate it all. I don't think art can be categorized; to me it's all one thing. As well, it's harder to sustain a career now because so many acts don't know their craft when they start off. And videos are not the way to launch a career. Nothing against VH1 or MTV, who've been very good to me, but I think it would be great if there were no music video stations. [laughs] I can't believe I'm saying that.

IS: Say it. It's good.

EJ: If I were king, I would ban music videos!

IS: It feels like producers really, really matter right now. Whenever people are talking about what's going on in, say, Iceland, they name all these incredible producers working there. It's the same with England and America. Is that new?

EJ: Producers have always been important--they're as important now as when I started off. What a producer's there for is to hear the songs, edit them, make sure the sound is okay, make sure the song is arranged the best it can possibly be, and maybe suggest changes. The Beatles and George Martin, for example, were such a team; it was the same with the Rolling Stones and Glyn Johns, and Ryan Adams and Ethan Johns.

IS: Is Ethan Johns related to Glyn Johns?