Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
Elton: I’m quitting for sake of family
300-show global tour will be his last ‘My priorities have changed since kids’
SIR Elton John will quit touring after “going out with a bang” on a 300date, round-the-world farewell that will last until 2021.
Confirming our online exclusive that his next tour would be his last, Elton, 71, yesterday told a press conference: “My priorities have changed in my life.”
He and husband David Furnish have two sons, Elijah, five, and Zachary, seven.
Elton said: “The children changed our lives. In 2015, David and I sat down with the school schedule and thought, ‘I don’t want to miss too much of this’.
“My priorities now are my children, my husband and my family. And I have been touring since I was 17. I thought the time is right to say thank you to all my fans around the world and say goodbye. I am not going to travel any more.”
The Farewell Yellow Brick Road Tour will start in the US on September 8 and arrives in Dublin on June 12, 2019.
Elton said: “I always thought I would be on tour for ever, but once you have children your life changes. When I stop they will be 10 and eight and that’s a very important time in their lives.
“I love them so much and I don’t want them to miss me. I never thought I could love them as much as I do. I never thought I could be a father as I was too selfish. I don’t want to go out with a whimper, I want to go out with a bang and say thank you.”
The singer has been dogged by ill health in recent years. Last April, he became “violently ill” with a bacterial
I’ve been touring since I was 17. The time is right to say thank you and goodbye SIR ELTON JOHN SINGER ANNOUNCES RETIREMENT FROM TOURING