Sherlock Gnomes — the animated sequel to 2011’s Gnomeo & Juliet, executive-produced by Sir Elton John and co-produced by John’s husband, David Furnish — features plenty of classic Elton tunes, from “Saturday Night’s Alright for Fighting” to “I’m Still Standing.” But the film’s splashiest musical number is soundtracked by a new tune, “Stronger Than I Ever Was,” performed not by John but by Mary J. Blige.

John tells Yahoo Entertainment that coming up with the sassy soul song was a challenge for him and his songwriting partner of 50 years, Bernie Taupin. However, thanks to Blige’s personal connection to the empowerment anthem’s lyrics, everything came together.

“It worked out incredibly, because I knew it was going to be Mary J., so I had that in mind when I wrote the melody,” John reveals. “The words, ironically enough, when she did the track in Los Angeles, she’d just come through a breakup with her husband.”

“Bernie and I have never written a song like this. We knew it was going to have an uptown-funky vibe on it,” says John. “I said, ‘I’ve got to write this song for Mary J. Blige, play me something!’ So they played current music, and he and I had to write a kind of R&B-type thing for her to sing. It’s not the sort of song I would normally write for myself.”

When Blige and John entered the recording studio, it was clear that the tune was perfect for the R&B diva. “She said, ‘This is the easiest song for me to sing, because it just hits the nail on the head what I’m going through.’ It was very strange, that — she sang it in 10 minutes. I mean, she just gave it a roll, because she was going through that,” John marvels.

Mary J. Blige and Elton John in the studio (Photo: Paramount)

Blige recently divorced her husband of more than a decade, Martin “Kendu” Isaacs — who was also her manager — and she has been very candid about her heartbreak in various interviews (and even onstage at Clive Davis’s pre-Grammy gala last year). So it’s not surprising that she related to Taupin’s lyrics, like “Do I look like I need you?
/I’m super-deluxe, new, improved/Better shape, better off/Stronger than I ever was” and “I’d never ever take you back
/I’d walk on fire and broken glass/It’s sister time, I’m here to say
 … I never really liked you anyway!”

Blige told Variety last year that she drew on “a lot of my own heaviness from my own misery that I was living in that horrible marriage” for her portrayal of Florence in the Netflix drama Mudbound, for which she received an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actress. However, for her Sherlock Gnomes character — “fabulous” alpha-female Irene — she went upbeat and uptempo, dedicating “Stronger Than I Ever Was” to her no-good ex (the titular character, voiced by Johnny Depp) and putting Sherlock in his place.

“[Mary] doesn’t give anything less than powerful performances. That’s why I love her so much,” says John.

Clearly, the feeling is mutual, as this isn’t Blige’s only collaboration with John. She recently recorded a track for the Elton John/Bernie Taupin tribute album Revamp, which will also feature remakes by Miley Cyrus, Lady Gaga, the Killers, Coldplay, Ed Sheeran, Alessia Cara, Sam Smith, Florence & the Machine, Mumford & Sons, P!nk with Logic, Q-Tip with Demi Lovato, and Queens of the Stone Age.

As for John’s own animated appearance in Sherlock Gnomes – a brief cameo as a glittery pink, piano-playing gnome – he says when he hits the road on his Farewell Yellow Brick Road tour this fall, he won’t be rocking any gnome costumes. “I know I could probably pull it off,” he chuckles, “but I wouldn’t think I would wear the gnome outfit. I sang ‘Your Song’ in the original [Gnomeo] movie, and I cracked up, because I didn’t know that [myself as a gnome] was going to be in the movie. When it came on, I just burst out laughing. My kids love it, of course. They would love me to be a gnome.”

Sherlock Gnomes hits theaters Friday, March 23. Revamp (along with an all-star companion compilation of country Elton covers, Restoration) comes out on April 6. Elton John’s Farewell Yellow Brick Road tour kicks off Sept. 8 in Allentown, Pa.

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This article originally ran on Yahoo Music.

As Sir Elton John, one of the most fabulously attired performers in rock ‘n’ roll history, prepares for his farewell tour, everyone is wondering what he’s going to wear. After all, he has dressed as everything from Captain Fantastic to a Pinball Wizard to Donald Duck. In the forthcoming animated film Sherlock Gnomes, which features his classic music as well as the new tune “Stronger Than I Ever Was,” he even makes a cameo as a glittery pink gnome.

But looking back at his five decades of touring, there’s one crazy outfit that really stands out: a gorilla suit, which he donned to scare Iggy Pop onstage at a 1973 club gig.

“I dressed as a gorilla and went onstage with Iggy Pop, yes,” he laughingly tells Yahoo Entertainment. “In Richard’s Club, in Atlanta. I saw him the first night. He was so great; I wanted to go back the second night. I thought, ‘I know what. I’ll dress as a gorilla!’ I jumped onstage — and he freaked out. Years later, he told me he was tripping on acid when I did it.”

Elton John and Iggy Pop in the 1970s. Photo: Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images

It takes a lot to scare Iggy Pop, but the Stooges’ punk pioneer “thought he was hallucinating or else a real gorilla was raiding the stage,” Paul Trynka explained in his biography Iggy Pop: Open Up and Bleed. Pop also stated in Legs McNeil and Gillian McCain’s Please Kill Me: The Uncensored Oral History of Punk: “I was like, ‘Oh my God! What can I do?’ I couldn’t fight him. I could barely stand.”

“It was the stinkiest gorilla’s outfit you could have possibly have,” John tells Yahoo of the hairy prank, which was encouraged by some Creem magazine staff members in attendance — including a photographer who captured the priceless look of rage on Stooges guitarist James Williamson’s face. “I thought it would be great, but it kind of backfired. At the end, they said, ‘Oh, by the way, that was Elton John in the gorilla suit.’ Everyone said, ‘Oh, yeah. Sure it was.’ It was one of my mad things. Those were the days, you know. Those were the days.”

John may laugh when he recalls his wild ‘70s era, but as he plans to retire from the road to spend more time with his family, he shrugs, “I don’t really look back very much. But when I do, get reminded of what I’ve done. I lived 10 years in one year. I’ve just had a blast. I mean, there’s been so many wonderful things. In 1970, if you’d have told me that I’d be sitting here in 2018 talking about a farewell tour, I’d have said, ‘You’re nuts!’ But then, 10 years ago if you’d said I’d have children — two children — I’d have said, ‘You’re nuts.’ That’s the way my life is; I’m willing to let it evolve as it should do. I’ve had the most incredible career. It’s not going to stop.”

John notes that he won’t be dressing up as an ape — or a gnome — on his worldwide, three-year goodbye tour. So what will he be wearing? “Things by Gucci,” of course.

Elton John’s “Farewell Yellow Brick Road” tour kicks off Sept. 8 in Allentown, Pa. Sherlock Gnomes comes out March 23.

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This article originally ran on Yahoo Music.