United Kingdom, July 30 -- Songwriting is a "whole different ballgame" for Elton John now that he's got such severe vision problems, his friend and writing partner Bernie Taupin has revealed.

The Your Song star is blind in his right eye and has limited vision in his left, so has adopted a "completely different way" of getting music and lyrics down on paper.

Speaking to Rolling Stone about Elton's new music, Bernie said: "Well, he's got a record coming out, I think, at the beginning of next year that I contributed to.

"But I literally don't know when that is. He did it with Andrew Watt again. And he wrote it in a completely different way simply because of his eyesight problem."

Bernie went on to explain that Elton "can't read lyrics if...