John’s concert with Dee, Lipa, Carlile to livestream on Disney+
Elton John’s audacious 1970 U.S. debut at a Los Angeles nightclub moved a critic to declare that the slight young Englishman would become one of rock’s most important stars. It didn’t take long.
Within five years, his reputation cemented by a string of hits including “Rocket Man” and “Daniel,” fans packed LA’s Dodger Stadium for two rousing, sequin-bedecked concerts. And now John will close out the North American leg of his last tour at the ballpark.
“I started off in Los Angeles at the Troubadour (club), and I want it to end here because it’s been a magical place for me,” John said in a recent interview.
The final concert of the three-night stand will be streamed live Nov. 20 on Disney+ starting at 11 p.m. Eastern time. The threehour event will open with “Countdown to Elton Live,” which includes an interview with John and celebrity shoutouts.
John promised more bell and whistles than at the tour’s other concerts — but hopefully without “any elephants or giraffes coming on stage,” he said, a wry reference to “The Lion King.” The Tony-winning hit musical with songs by John and Tim Rice marks its 25th anniversary on Broadway this month.
The stadium stage is “enormous and fantastic. The videos are wonderful. I like to be surprised, so I will be surprised,” John said.
His influence “spans generations, making this last North American stop on his farewell tour one for the record books,” said Ayo Davis, president of Disney Branded Television.
The rock ’n’ roll giant’s enduring body of work includes “Your Song,”
“Tiny Dancer” and “Goodbye Yellow Brick Road.” He has earned six Grammy Awards, including a Legend Award, and is in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Songwriters Hall of Fame. His record sales worldwide have surpassed 300 million.
Dua Lipa, Kiki Dee and Brandi Carlile will join him on stage Sunday, and it’s no coincidence that all are women. He has had rewarding creative relationships with female artists, he said, and the three are “very important singers in my life.”
He and Dee had a 1976 hit with the bouncy “Don’t Go Breaking My Heart,” and she was with him at his first LA stadium show. John is close to Carlile, who joined him for “Simple Things” on his 2021 “The Lockdown Sessions” album, and their families vacation together.
As for Lipa, “I love her dearly,” John said. He credits their “Cold Heart” single with giving his career a boost and “launching me into a different stratosphere as far as streaming goes and connecting with young people.”
“I feel modern. I feel elated with working. When you work with a different artist, you always
learn something from them, and that’s the whole point,” he said.
The Farewell Yellow Brick Road tour began in September 2018 in Pennsylvania with the first of the 300-plus dates scheduled worldwide. It was suspended in 2020 because of the COVID-19 pandemic and resumed in 2021 in New Orleans.
In January, John heads to Australia and New Zealand, then moves on to Britain and Europe. The tour is set to conclude in Sweden in July.
Is the Yellow Brick Road tour really goodbye? “It is definitely the farewell tour,” he said, although a short-term residency has its appeal.
“But to be honest with you, when I come off stage in Stockholm next July 8, I’ll be looking forward to having a holiday, I’ll be looking forward to taking a breather,” he said. Then it’s back to work on projects already in progress, including “The Devil Wears Prada: The Musical.”
“I’ll be recording with other people, and I’ll be hopefully writing an album for myself. So it’s not as if I’m stopping doing anything,” John said. “But I’m not traveling. Traveling takes me away from my family.”