Elton John says upcoming tour will be last
— Elton John is retiring from the road after his upcoming threeyear global tour, capping nearly 50 years on stages around the world.
“I’ve had a good run, I think you’d admit that,” John said, adding that he wanted to “leave people thinking, ‘I saw the last tour and it was fantastic.’”
The 70-year-old singer, pianist and composer said he wanted to spend time with his family. His children will be 8 and 10 when the tour ends in 2021, and John said he hoped he might be able to take them to soccer practice.
“My priorities now are my children and my husband and my family,” he said. “This is the end.”
John made the announcement at an event in New York in which he sat at a piano and performed “Tiny Dancer” and “I’m Still Standing.” He wore his signature glasses and a colorful suit jacket that read “Gucci Loves Elton.”
His final tour — dubbed “Farewell Yellow Brick Road” — starts on Sept. 8 in Allentown, Pennsylvania and includes 300 shows in North America, Europe, Asia and South America. Tickets go on sale beginning Feb. 2.
Interest in the announcement was so high his website crashed. He wrote on Instagram that “EltonJohn.com will be fully back online as soon as possible.”
John said he decided on his retirement plans in 2015 in France: “I can’t physically do the traveling and I don’t want to,” he said.
He said he may do a residency after the tour wraps, but ruled out the idea of using a hologram of himself. He called it “spooky” and “a bit freaky,” and said he told his kids to “promise me that there won’t be a hologram of me.”
“Who knows? They may go broke and put me back on the (expletive) stage,” he added.
John has suffered several medical setbacks of late, including a bacterial infection last year that he contracted during a South American tour and an E. coli bacterial infection in 2009. He’s also had appendicitis and has been fitted with a pacemaker. But he said he’s “in great health.”
In an interview after the announcement, John told The Associated Press, “Ten years ago, I wanted to die onstage.”
But, he said, “I just never thought fatherhood could bring me so much joy, and I came to fatherhood late in the day, but it’s been one of the miracles of my life.”
He said two children keep him and husband David Furnish busy: “We thought about (more kids) but we said, ‘No.’ We have enough on our plate with these two. If we were 10, 15 years younger, we probably would have, definitely. I would love to have a little girl.”
At the Grammy Awards, to be presented in New York on Sunday, John is to perform alongside Miley Cyrus and will collect the President’s Merit Award.
His Las Vegas residency ends in May after six years. His hits include “Your Song” and “Candle in the Wind.” He has won five Grammys, an Oscar, a Golden Globe for “The Lion King” and a Tony Award for “Aida.”
He is the recipient of a Kennedy Center Honor and has sold 300 million records. Elton John