Out singer Elton John on Wednesday
announced that he will retire from touring after a lengthy 300-date
farewell tour.
"I'm not going to be touring
anymore," he said during a press conference in New York. "I'm
not going to be touring and traveling the world. My priorities have
changed. I have young children."
John said that his upcoming Farewell
Yellow Brick Road tour – which he described as “the most
produced, fantastic show I've ever done” – would be his last.
“That doesn't mean I won't still be
creative," he said. "But I won't travel any more. … I
don't want to go out with a whimper. I want to go out with a bang.”
John and husband David Furnish are
raising two young boys.
“I'm 71. I can't physically do the
traveling anymore. I want to be at home. I really want to spend time
with my children at home. I've had an incredible life, but life is
all about change,” he said.
In 1977, John announced that he would
no longer perform live. “I've made a decision tonight that this is
going to be the last show,” he told a stunned crowd in London. But
he returned to the stage two years later.
At Wednesday's event he insisted that
this was his last tour. “I'm not Cher,” he said, a reference to
Cher's comebacks.
The Farewell Yellow Brick Road tour
kicks off September 8 in Allentown, Pennsylvania's PPL Center.