Elton John talks farewell tour, focusing on family: 'I can't go on forever'
In a press conference hosted by Anderson Cooper at New York’s Gotham Hall and streamed on YouTube Wednesday, Elton John announced he will be retiring after his three-year, 300-date, international “Farewell Yellow Brick Road” tour, which kicks off Sept. 8 in Allentown, Pa. The reason for the legend’s retirement? Not health problems, as the U.K. tabloids erroneously reported — “If you’re going to do 300 shows, you’re not in ill health,” John pointed out — but because his “priorities have changed” since he became a father.
“Ten years ago, if you had said I’m going to stop touring, I would have said, ‘No, no, I’m a working musician. I always play. But we had children, and that changed our lives,” John explained. “And in 2015, [my husband] David [Furnish] and I sat down with a school schedule, and I thought, ‘I don’t want to miss too much of this.’ I’ve had an amazing life, I’ve had an amazing career, I’ve been so incredibly lucky, and, just, my life has changed. My priorities now are my children and my husband and my family.”
John said this “was not hard decision because I really do love my kids so much. … You can FaceTime all you want, but it’s not exactly like being there with them. [My kids] need me, they need David, they need parents, and I want to be there.”
John confessed that he never thought he would ever be a parent — “I always thought, ‘Nah, I’m too selfish, too set in my ways” — until a visit to a Ukrainian orphanage changed his mind. “It was like a message from God saying, ‘You can be a dad! Bulls***! Change is good. Stop being so selfish!’” he said. “What was I going to be? Two gay men going around the world, just having a great life? We’ve been able to give these two gorgeous people a great life so far. I never, ever thought in a million years that would ever happen to me. You can never close the door on anything.”
However, John insisted that he really is closing the door on touring. “I am not going to be one of these people that says, ‘I’m going to do a world tour and I’m retiring’ [if it’s not really true]. I’m not Cher — even though I do like wearing her clothes,” he joked. Eerily, if unintentionally, bringing to mind the nonstop, arduous touring that eventually felled aging rockers like Tom Petty and Prince, he added, “I’ve been in the back of a van since I’ve been about 16. I travel so much, about 180 flights a year, and that takes it out of you. I’m 71. I can’t physically do the traveling, and I don’t want to do the traveling. I want to be at home. I really want to spend time with my children and enjoy my life. … I don’t want to miss them, and I don’t want them to miss me.”
John noted, however, that he will still record at least “a couple more albums” and said, “I will be creative, hopefully, up until the day I die.” John said he hasn’t ruled out doing a concert residency, like the 22-date stint the reclusive Kate Bush did at London’s Hammersmith Apollo in 2014 — “I’ll have to rethink what I’m going to do,” he mused — he even said he might play a special show at Los Angeles’s Troubadour, where he made his historic live U.S. debut in 1970. (Wednesday’s press conference was hosted by John’s songwriting partner of the past 50 years, Bernie Taupin, at the Troubadour.) But while he once thought he was “going to be like Ray Charles and B.B. King, on the road forever,” in 2015 he made his decision to retire from touring, telling Furnish, ‘Listen, I can’t go on forever.’”
Although John’s press conferences, held jointly in New York, Los Angeles, and London, involved a dazzling virtual-reality segment, John laughed when asked if he’d ever consider sending a hologram of himself out on tour once his “Farewell Yellow Brick Road” trek is over. “I said to Zachary, my eldest son, ‘When Daddy dies, promise me that a hologram of me won’t be going around doing concerts!’ That’s the last thing I want. … That’s so spooky.”
Instead, John will focus on making his final tour “the most produced, fantastic shows that I’ve ever done. … I don’t want to go out with a whimper; I want to go out with a bang. I’m not a whimpery guy. I want to leave people thinking, ‘God, I saw the last tour, and it was fantastic.’” He also said he will go out in “classy, elegant way,” and “hopefully it will be like saying goodbye to a friend. … I’m really looking forward to the tour. And I’m really looking forward to that 300th date.”
Elton John is set to perform with Miley Cyrus this Sunday at the 60th Annual Grammy Awards, which will take place at his favorite concert venue, New York’s Madison Square Garden.