Sir Elton John has hailed Damon Albarn as the "most interesting British musician".

The 'Tiny Dancer' hitmaker admires how the Blur star - who he has joined forces with on the track 'Pink Phantom' for his cartoon band Gorillaz's latest album - has branched out into various corners of music with his many side projects, also including The Good, the Bad & the Queen, away from the 'Song 2' group.

Speaking to Damon on his Apple Music 'Rocket Hour' radio show, Elton said: "I have to tell the people at home why I love you so much, and don’t get embarrassed, it’s because out of Blur came Gorillaz, came The Good, the Bad & the Queen, came 'Monkey', which was an opera way way back, and as an artist and composer I’ve always loved the fact that you did things that you loved and you explored different music and you went for it.

"I don’t think there’s any other British composer that’s ever done that quite like you … I have to hand it to you, you are for me the most interesting British musician because you’re always going off and doing something and throwing everything behind it … it’s incredible that you’ve gone from one of the most successful bands of all time, and by the way the last Blur album was a masterpiece as far as I’m concerned, and it’s the joy of playing with wonderful musicians that you seem to love, and I really admire that."

Meanwhile, Damon revealed he had to stop playing the piano "for a while" because he "just kept writing songs" like Elton.

He told the 'Rocket Man' hitmaker himself: "I started off at just the beginning of Blur, I couldn’t play the guitar, I only played the piano. My songs were, as you say, quite sort of all over the place, and I sort of had to stop playing the piano for a while because I just kept writing songs like Elton John and I had to write something else."