Elton John Producer Andrew Watt Compares Him to Beethoven: ‘He’s Extremely Volatile’ (Exclusive)

Andrew Watt reflects on his experience working with Elton John.

The Grammy-winning producer worked with the “Tiny Dancer” hitmaker on his collaborative album with Brandi Carlile, Who Believes in Angels?, which was released in April.

Watt, 35, compared John, 78, to “Mozart or Beethoven” when he’s working.

“[He’s] a little more like Beethoven, I would say, and when he’s writing, he’s extremely volatile,” he tells PEOPLE. (John has addressed his temper over the years.)

While Watt notes that all artists are different when they’re making music, he had to operate in a specific way when working with the “Rocket Man” performer.

“My job is to read the room, and if you’re in Elton’s eye line as he’s writing, you’re in the f—ing lion’s den,” he says. “So I would try and be around him to make sure I was close enough to when he would call for me or needs something, or I could hear what he was doing, what he was coming up with.”

However, Watt “would try and be out of his direct eye line.”

He notes that John writes songs “in a way really no one else writes,” which has come from his time spent working with longtime songwriting partner Bernie Taupin.

“He takes [a lyric], puts it up on the piano, reads it, sees a movie scene in his head, and then scores the movie,” says Watt. “And then as he’s scoring the movie, he starts singing the words, fitting them into the chords and coming up with melodies based on the words and the phonetics of the words.”

According to Watt, John “can’t do it without the words because what makes him feel like a story.”

Watt said watching the process of John making Who Believes in Angels? with Carlile, 44, was “really magical.”

At the time, Watt recalls that the five-time Grammy winner was coming off of his retirement tour, which was challenging.

“He was exhausted. He was doubting himself. He was very self-conscious, very insecure at times, and we helped lift him up,” he recalls.

Watt continues, “And when he got through it all, he was so proud, and it was a really, really special, special time. I’ll never forget.”

He says they were “capturing lightning in a bottle” every day.