At age 13, Ed Roland thought it was going to be a long, long time before he would ever come face to face with Elton John.

That was when the young Roland, the son of a Baptist minister, purchased his first rock album -- Elton John's Greatest Hits -- a record that inspired him to take up songwriting full time, planting the seeds for his future role as Collective Soul frontman.

"I remember seeing him when I was young and thinking, 'Wow, that's what it's all about.' He was jumping around and having a blast," Roland says. "I love that. As far as rock 'n' roll goes, I guess I'm an old-fashioned kind of guy."

Fifth album

So when Collective Soul got a call from Sir Elton requesting a cameo spot on the Georgia rockers' fifth album, Blender, a 'yes' response, needless to say, came without hesitation.

"(Elton's) definitely what Ed would quote as his biggest idol," bassist Will Turpin says over the phone, discussing Roland and John's duet on Perfect Day. "He befriended us about three years ago, wanting to go to a Collective Soul show. And it just grew from there."

Turns out John, who makes Atlanta home for about six months a year, has been a huge fan of Collective Soul since their 1994 No. 1 single, Shine.

"We asked him to sing with us a long time ago -- on stage, on record, it didn't matter," Turpin says, noting John recently agreed on the condition he could also play piano for them. "(On Perfect Day), it finally came about."

Collective Soul bring their Blender tour to the Congress Centre on Tuesday night, with Calgary pop-rockers Zuckerbaby opening.

Released 21/2 weeks ago, Blender harkens back to the chugalong, riff-heavy rock Collective Soul perfected on their first pair of albums, 1994's Hints, Allegations and Things Left Unsaid and '95's self-titled disc.

'Pretty incredible'

Turpin says he, Roland, drummer Shane Evans and guitarists Ross Childress and Dean Roland took a more relaxed approach in recording, among others, Perfect Day, leadoff single Why Pt. 2 and a cover of Morphine's You Speak My Language.

"I'll tell you, the cool thing was the vibe we had in the studio was pretty incredible," Turpin says. "We had a big warehouse space in Atlanta, where we set up our own studio with lots of big couches, a bunch of candelabras, some Andy Warhol art hanging about.

"And we would have friends -- like Shawn Mullins and Marvelous 3's Butch Walker and Jayne Fincher -- stop by all the time, almost every night. It was an open-door situation; just come by, sit on a couch and watch things happen."

An improvement over '97's Disciplined Breakdown, which was laid down in a cabin with little money and in the midst of a lawsuit against their ex-manager.

"Sonically, it's not the best stuff," Turpin says of Disciplined Breakdown. "We knew we shouldn't have been working on that record, but we had to play together. Hell, we recorded the album, why not release it?

"We just didn't feel like we should stop."

And if platinum sales figures in the past six years mean anything, Collective Soul -- and their fans -- are glad they've elected to carry on.