By Keith Walsh
It’s never a disappointment catching up with singer/songwriter Tom Cridland because he’s always got something new going on. Fresh off his UK Tour with The Stylistics, I chatted with him just outside Amoeba Music in Hollywood, late December. (Trivia: Cridland purchased a trade paperback copy of Clive Davis’ autobiography for $4.99).

It seems Cridland’s ambitions are endless. His latest project, in addition to a world tour and his prolific podcast The Greatest Music Of All Time, is a new version of his single “I Wanna Be Home Alone,” this time featuring guitar by longtime Elton John collaborator Davey Johnstone.

Of working with Johnstone, Cridland explained: “I reached out to him, and wasn’t expecting a ‘yes’ to collaborate. I just arranged a podcast with him regarding his new album Deeper Than My Roots, which is coming out in January. There’s a full new podcast that we’ve just recorded on Sunset Blvd about that, in person, which was amazing. So around the same time that we were arranging that, I said ‘I’ve got this track, would you be willing to add some guitar on it?’ and he said, ‘sure, shoot it over, and I’ll do it, for free.’ Which is incredibly generous of him.”

Listen to “I Wanna Be Home Alone” on any streaming service

Cridland met Johnstone through mutual friend Nigel Olsson, and did the first of three podcasts with him last year. “He’s an absolute legend, and it’s an honor to have him on the track. And I hope it’s not that last time we collaborate. And he very kindly said, ‘send me something that’s less full, we’ll work on that.’”

Though “I Wanna Be Home Alone” was already a rather complete mix, Johnstone played his part brilliantly. As Cridland put it: “Well the track…is so ‘Earth, Wind And Fire-y,’ and funky, and different to Elton’s stuff, so in a way it was super interesting to hear someone who’s so used to doing Elton’s stuff – I’m sure it was in his comfort zone, but you know what I mean, I’m sure it’s not what he’s used to playing on. But he killed.”

Global Ambitions
Then there’s the upcoming World Tour of Cridland’s Elton John Band, starting this month and culminating in June of 2023. “I want to really hone in on playing keys and singing. So along with Justin (Woodward) on bass and Harry (Michaels) on drums, combining mine and Deb’s longstanding ambition to go around the world and see all the countries that we’re interested in exploring, we’re going be going around playing Elton’s music in a trio.”

After the tour, Cridland, a native of Britain, said he plans to settle down in the suburbs of Las Vegas with his romantic and business partner Deborah Marx. I asked, ‘is the goal a residency in Vegas?’

“Yeah, 100 percent,” he said. “I’ll start out with anything small, in Vegas, just regularly performing, seeing shows, doing podcasts. I’m going to build a podcast studio in the house as well so we can invite people down. And it’s very close to California and LA, which I love. And it’s a very good value, there are so many reasons to move to Vegas.”

Cridland said he’ll be doing a variety of songs from Elton’s catalog on the tour. “We’re doing greatest hits and a few deep cuts,” he said. “On each leg of our tour we’ll swap in a couple. To start with, we’re doing quite a bit of deep cuts and rarely performed tunes that are up tempo, because we know that we’re going to be playing in bars and stuff. For the initial route of the tour, because Elton’s going back on tour himself, we’re gonna be in the same town as Elton, so we’ll be able to see his show and do like an after party at a bar where we play. Or a pre-party. ‘Cause this is the last time to be able to see Elton and his band perform. Last chance.”

Cridland continued: “We’re going to be all over the U.S. for the first bit of the tour. Three or four (months) and we’ll be back in LA in October for the Dodgers’ Stadium shows that he’s doing, but yeah, deep-cut wise we are doing quite a few. ‘Country Comfort,’ we’re doing, ‘Teacher I Need You,’ ‘Kiss The Bride,’ plus every single hit.”

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