Charlie Puth experienced 'wake-up call' after Elton John criticised his music

Charlie Puth had a serious "wake-up call" after Elton John panned his music.

During an appearance on The Ellen DeGeneres Show on Wednesday, the Attention hitmaker recalled how he drastically changed his mindset after a chance encounter with the British music icon a couple of years ago.

"I felt like my music in 2019... the most important thing you can do, all the songwriters watching this right now, is when you write a song, it's important to tell the truth, and I wasn't really doing that in 2019," he said, possibly referring to his 2018 album Voicenotes. "The person who really kind of awoken my senses was none other than Elton John."

Charlie went on to recall his conversation with Elton at a restaurant in Los Angeles.

"He came up to me and said... 'You know, your music sucked in 2019. It wasn't good,'" the 30-year-old continued. "And it was like a gut punch, but I had been thinking that as well. It was kind of a wake-up call, a little bit. I was in denial a little bit. And then, the whole world shut down and I was able to sit with my new way of making music."

Charlie added that Elton's comments stayed with him during the Covid-19 lockdowns, and he hopes his self-titled upcoming album reflects his new perspective.

"I decided that I would never put out a song again if it weren't the truth," he added.