The Atlanta Journal

Elton John, whose abilities as a pop songwriter are without question, recently signed on to be a pop-music critic.

The once Captain Fantastic is sharing his views in a monthly column in Interview magazine, and among the artists he has championed in his four columns so far are Macy Gray, Moby, Groove Armada and Travis.

But he saved his highest praise for Eminem's controversial The Marshall Mathers LP, which has been criticized in some quarters as being misogynistic and anti-gay.

"It feels like the nuclear bomb has just hit," John writes of the album. "Rap records are often full of [expletive], and this is really hard-core stuff, but it's intelligent hard-core stuff - it's funny, it's clever, it's poetry, and it's also musically interesting."

In an interview with the Los Angeles Times, John said, "I don't think it's homophobic in the least. Axl Rose went through this thing as well, and every time I've met Axl, he couldn't have been nicer to me. Rock 'n' roll has always supposed to have been about pushing the buttons, hasn't it?"

- Richard L. Eldredge