Kate Hudson Says Elton John Told Her ‘Crazy’ Stories About Her Dad Bill Hudson

Kate Hudson may not have been around to witness her biological dad Bill Hudson’s 1970s party days, but Elton John was more than happy to fill her in.

Hudson, 45, opened up about embracing her new career path as a songwriter in a special performance and panel at The Grammy Museum in Los Angeles on Monday, Sept. 9.

During her chat with journalist David Wise, the singer and actress revealed that John, 77, would often regale her with stories of his partying heyday with her father Bill, 74. Bill had a close relationship with John and his songwriting partner Bernie Taupin, as Taupin signed Bill’s group The Hudson Brothers to John’s label Rocket Record Company, and produced some of their albums.

“Every time I would see Elton John, especially after Almost Famous, he would tell me these stories about how crazy my father was, and wild and naked all the time, apparently!” she said. “[He] liked to be naked. The stories I heard of my dad from Elton…”

Hudson previously opened up about her strained relationship with Bill in a PEOPLE cover story in May, saying he was not present in her life after his divorce from her mother Goldie Hawn in 1982. After their split, Hawn began dating her longtime partner Kurt Russell, and together they raised Kate and her brother Oliver, as well as Kurt’s son Boston and Kurt and Goldie’s son Wyatt.

“There’s nothing new there but love,” Hudson told PEOPLE of Bill. “I love him… I just don’t overthink it. It’s a 40-year-old issue.”

In her talk with Wise, Hudson, who released her debut album Glorious in May, said she often used music to connect with her dad when she was a child.

“I wanted him in my life, but for complications of life and people and what have you, we had a very, very tough relationship,” she said. “So for me, music was like, Hudson, you know? The Hudsons, we’re just… it’s just all music. And so when I was little I wanted to feel that connection with him, but I never got it.”

She also spoke glowingly of her time on the set of Almost Famous (which famously uses John’s song “Tiny Dancer” in a singalong scene).

Hudson said Cameron Crowe’s 2000 flick “took my career to a place that I could only have ever imagined that I would be at as a performer.”

The star added that she “begged” director Crowe to let her audition for the part of Penny Lane, which she ultimately secured.

“I was [initially] playing the sister. I was lower in the cast,” she said. “I was such a huge Cameron Crowe fan, so then I just said, ‘Just please let me audition for Penny Lane,’ and he didn’t like that, and then he finally said yes.”

She continued, “That whole experience, as a whole, was incredible.”