A cohort of 15 young people had a day they will never forget at Apple’s Battersea HQ yesterday. It was the second day of workshops designed to teach them skills using Apple technologies, as part of the Apple x King’s Trust Creative Labs programme. Apple’s former chief executive, now executive chair, Tim Cook, talked exclusively to The Independent about the initiative.
The location was Apple Music Hall, the stunningly designed music venue which has just opened inside Battersea Power Station. The King’s Trust’s celebrates its 50th anniversary year in 2026, designed to help young people develop life skills and access job opportunities.
The first experience began with music industry and creative workshops – more are planned to happen over the next year. On the second of two days, the attendees were told that a special guest was coming. When they heard it was Tim Cook, the excitement was palpable. But there was more to come.
I sat down with Cook backstage at Apple Music Hall, to ask him about the programme, what it means to him, oh, and what life is like now he’s no longer CEO. Cook, as ever, was relaxed, enthusiastic and perfectly focused.
I began by asking why Apple is such a good fit with the King’s Trust. “It’s because we both believe in maximising people’s potential, and that if you can do that, you can lift the entire community,” he told me. “If you focus on young people, young curious people, it’s amazing what they can wind up doing if you provide them the right tools and the right mentorship. That’s the thinking behind the Trust that’s at the heart of its 50 years of success, and the thinking of Apple’s philosophy – they’re one and the same.”
The young people in the room next door were working with Prophet Guillory, who is Apple Music’s head of Artist Services, Tools and Community, and whom Cook described as “an incredible person,” because of his way of “bringing out the best in the young people, getting to think about maximising their potential. It’s all about giving them a pathway to future success. These are all the folks who want to be young creators.”
This is the first of these programmes, but it sounds like Apple wants to do more, logistics permitting. “It’s a high-touch programme so there’s a practical limit to the number of people we can include each time, but, yes, we want to touch as many people as we can,” Cook said.
Apple has historically been emphatic about its desire to help people do things they couldn’t otherwise do, stretching back to the days when Steve Jobs was CEO. But there needs to be a benefit to Apple, I suggested.
“We’re a toolmaker,” Cook said. “At the end of the day, we make tools for people to be able to create things they couldn’t create otherwise, and we want to give back to the communities that we live and work in. And this community has given us so much. We are so grateful for the community in the UK.
“And the music scene here punches way above its weight in the world. It’s a way for us to give back in a way that is uniquely Apple. There are a lot of ways to do philanthropic activities, but I think you want to do ones where you can give part of yourself – not just your resource, but part of yourself, and we have such great creative people in the company that can be incredible mentors to these folks.”
Cook has had the chance to tour Apple Music Hall, so fresh that it still smells of “new building” when you’re there. Cook pointed out that building it is something that not every company would create. “I love that it’s uniquely Apple,” he said. “I’m not sure there’s a lot of people that could do it, and there’s certainly not a lot of people that would. Every detail has been thought through, the construction, the design, the technology behind it, spatial audio capabilities: it’s the perfect place to perform, whether you’re a top-tier artist now, or an emerging artist, one that’s just starting out. And it’s a commitment to live performance and the recognition that that is so important.”
Tim Cook is just over a month into his new job. He handed the reins to the new CEO John Ternus on 1 September, to become Executive Chair.
“It’s been an interesting transition,” he said. “We really set out to have the best transition ever, a textbook example that people could look back to and learn from. It actually started years ago. Obviously, these things are not quick things and I feel so great about how things are going I think everything has gone sort of exactly the way I had envisioned it. And it feels fantastic. Because Apple deserved the best.”
When he said that was designed as a textbook example, Cook was using his trademark understatement. New textbooks will be created from this changeover. I pointed out that many CEO’s would not have left when he did but have taken the stage for one more glorious keynote to launch the highly important iPhone Duo, Apple’s first foldable phone, on sale from 23 October. But that wasn’t Cook’s style.
“I wanted John to have some wind at his back,” he confided. “And the wind at Apple is very much based on the product cycle. This product cycle feels unbelievably great. The Duo is coming in a few weeks and it’s amazing.”
There have been comments from some that it was a peculiar arrangement, having a former chief executive remain in the company while the new one is framing the future. The dynamic between the two will surely be different, but Cook is unworried.
“First of all, John and I have an incredible level of trust in each other. The relationship must be based on trust, and the communication must be frequent and significant. But other than that, what I’m focused on right now is worldwide policy. And the interface with governments around the world matters because there are lots of things where we’re trying to advance or advocate for change. There’s a significant amount of work in that, and I’m doing that and helping John in any way he sees fit. I’m not meddling. I’m not a meddler.”
This utterly fits with the Tim Cook I’ve been interviewing for more than a decade now. He once commented that Steve Jobs had advised him not to make a decision because Cook thought that’s what he would have done.
“I’ve told John the same thing. And the advice I’ve given him is, make it your own job. Put your time in the things that you can add the most value to around the company. And that means don’t mimic me. Just like I didn’t mimic Steve. We all have different strengths.
On that note, Cook was whisked away – a special guest had arrived. The cohort of young people, already excited to meet Cook, were bowled over when, a few minutes later, he introduced them to the King. King Charles and Cook talked amiably with them, hearing their stories or even the tracks they had concocted on the first day of the workshop. That must be the end of the excitement, right?
But no, they then went into the intimate, state-of-the-art Apple Music Hall, to be greeted by the artist who had opened the venue a week or so ago: Elton John. Enough, already?
No, then another artist, Skye Newman, appeared on stage. She was performing later that day, and had agreed to do her sound check as an impromptu (and very accomplished) short set. The young attendees danced with glee, and even the royal toes were tapping.
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