Elton Wants to be Dylan?

Elton John was in the house the other night at Capitol Studios in Hollywood to play five songs off his forthcoming album, The Diving Board, which was produced by T-Bone Burnett.

Originally scheduled for release early last year and then again in February, it will now be out in September on Capitol Records. At the Q&A after the playback, Elton said, "I wanted at 66 years of age to make records that I think befits a person of my age. Like Modern Times by Bob Dylan. When I heard that record I went, 'My God, this record could have been made any time in the last 50 years!' It's brilliant and I want to try to make records as good as that. And [Dylan] is the person that we look up to. He's the person that we aspire to be as artists because he's always changing, he's always mercurial, he's always like a chameleon. And his quality control is pretty damn good."

Elton starts a 13-night run in Las Vegas on Saturday as part of his Million Dollar Piano residency.