End of the Yellow Brick Road
Elton to play 300 shows ... then quit touring to spend more time with his young sons
SIR Elton John is retiring from touring after almost 50 years to dedicate more time to raising his sons.
The 70-year-old singer said his ‘priorities have changed’ and he did not want to be absent while Zachary, seven, and Elijah, five, grow up.
He maintained he was not giving up because of ill health – and in testament to his vigour he will mark the end of his touring career with a mammoth show of 300 dates over three years.
Speaking about his children, he said: ‘I love them so much. I don’t want to miss them and I don’t want them to miss me.’
Announcing the news at a press conference in New York, Sir Elton added: ‘My priorities are now my children, and my husband. I thought the time was right to say thank you to all my fans around the world globally, and to say goodbye, to have a breather.’
The singer, who married David Furnish in 2005, also insisted that although he was retiring from touring he would not stop making music, saying: ‘Hopefully I will be creative up till the day I die.’
Discussing how he made the decision, he said: ‘In 2015 David and I sat down with a school schedule and I said, “I don’t want to miss too much of this”.
‘It wasn’t a hard struggle because I love my kids so much and they really have taken over my life and are the most important thing. I can’t physically do the travelling ... I don’t want to do the travelling, I want to be at home. I’ve had an incredible life but life is all about change.’
The tour, which will start this September, is named Farewell Yellow Brick Road after his song Goodbye Yellow Brick Road which topped the UK charts in 1973.
The string of shows will start in the US and will cover Europe, Asia, Australasia and South America before returning to Europe and the UK late in 2020 and finishing in America in 2021. His sons will be taken out of school so they can travel with him and a tutor for the European leg.
Last year he cancelled a series of shows after contracting a bacterial infection and spending two nights in intensive care.
Sir Elton has sold more than 200million records and has had seven number one hits in the UK. Tickets for his final tour will go on sale in September.