The odd couple met at the Newport Folk Festival earlier this summer (15) and Lerner, who directed classic concert movies Festival and Jimi Hendrix at the Isle of Wight, admits they struck up an unlikely friendship.

He tells WENN, "I really would like to do something with Hozier. I've gotten friendly with him and I'd like to do a film about him.

"He told me he got into music and he is where he is now because of my Newport footage (in Festival). I went to Newport this year because of the 50th anniversary of Bob Dylan going electric there, and they asked me to interview some people and I said, 'There's this Irish kid and I'd like to talk to him...'"

Lerner, who won the Best Documentary Oscar for 1981's From Mao to Mozart: Isaac Stern in China, would also like to make a movie about Peter Gabriel and has ambitious plans to revisit Pink Floyd's classic Dark Side of the Moon album.

He adds, "I'd really like to do a 3D IMAX film based on it. I don't think it'll ever happen, but you never know."

And Lerner, who is currently promoting his new DVD/Blu-Ray release What's Going On: Taste Live at the Isle of Wight, reveals he has one new documentary on late eccentric Tiny Tim ready for release, if he can secure the financing and distribution.

He explains, "He really did a fantastic set at the Isle of Wight festival (in 1970) and I have an interview with him, in which he talks about his entire career before he died, but it's difficult to get the money for that."