When Brandi Carlile went to record her newest release, 'Give Up the Ghost,' she enlisted the help of Sir Elton John. That makes it sound easy but, in truth, the weeks leading up to the collaboration were stressful for Carlile. She didn't even know if it was going to actually happen or not until she got the phone call asking her to fly to Las Vegas. Meeting her childhood hero and then having him sing a song on her album was everything she had hoped for, but Carlile got something from John that she didn't expect -- a lesson in music appreciation.

"The day we made 'Caroline,' a lot of our conversations were centered on new music and artists that I hadn't been made aware of," Carlile tells Spinner. "And the way he decided to make me aware of these artists was by sending me these records."

By her count, John mailed her 100 albums, easy. "I can tell you mainly it was Leon Russell," says Carlile. "He was sort of appalled that I wasn't familiar with Leon Russell, so he sent me literally everything Leon Russell has ever done."

'Give Up the Ghost,' which was produced by Rick Rubin, is out now.