Elton John has come to the defence of Lana Del Rey a full seven years after her much-maligned Saturday Night Live appearance.
Del Rey’s January 2012 performance of “Video Games” and “Blue Jeans” on SNL was widely mocked online. EW reported that she “seemed nervous and vocally shaky,” MTV opined that Del Rey "seemed nervous and detached,” and Hollywood Reporter declared she was “visibly nervous and her timing seemed a bit off.”
In a conversation with Del Rey for the new issue of Rolling Stone, John reflected that her SNL performance “wasn’t that bad.”
He told her: “It wasn’t terrible at all. I don’t know what the agenda was there, but where was the #MeToo movement there? … It was an outrageous assault.”
John suggested it was too early in her career to have thrust her into the coveted SNL spotlight.
“I didn’t think it was a major f**k-up. I saw Ashlee Simpson and, yeah, that’s a major f**k-up,” said John, referring to Simpson’s lip syncing fail on SNL in 2004. “That’s funny. Not to her it isn’t, but it’s very funny to watch.”
At the end of the Rolling Stone conversation, John and Del Rey are asked if it’s sad to say goodbye to audiences every night.
John replied: “There are some places you think, ‘Thank f**k I don’t have to come back here! Yeah! Bye!’ I’m not going to say where, though. Oh, my God. No.”