Elton John touched on his post-touring musical plans ahead of his upcoming final UK show at the Glastonbury festival on June 25th. uDiscoverMusic quoted Elton talking to the BBC about what shape his performing career will take once off the road: “It’ll be very sporadic, I really don’t want to tour again. Doing a theater thing for a few weeks might be appealing, but honestly, that’s in the dim and distant future. I’m not going back to Vegas. If I do anything, it will be here (in the UK). . . I do not want to fly anywhere (or) go anywhere, I just want to be still for a few months.”
Regarding his homeland farewell at Glastonbury, Elton revealed, “This is the first time I’ve been asked to play it. It’s come at the right time, I’m a great believer in serendipity and fate and this is the most wonderful way to sign off in England. . . I’ve got guests and I can’t tell you who they are.”
Elton summed up his “Farewell Yellow Brick Road Tour” as a kind of love letter between him and his fans: “It's been everything I’d hoped it would be and more. The audiences have been amazing, dressing up. . . some of them have been to 150 shows, 300 shows. They’re treating it as a party, and that lifts my spirit every night. I have to say it’s been better than I could ever have imagined it to be. I’m happy in my personal life and my professional life, everything in my life is so wonderful. So I think that’s the reason why the performances really satisfy me.”
At the start of the tour, we caught up with Davey Johnstone, Elton's guitarist for over 50 years. And although he maintains the “Rocket Man” is indeed quitting the road — he's still unsure if he's actually done with performing. We asked him if he really thinks Elton's farewell trek is really the end of the road: “Oh yeah. Oh yeah — we're too bloody old! It's not gonna happen anymore. When we finally get finished with this farewell tour, there's no way we're gonna do any more. There's no way. . . it's just that . . . 'Cause, y'know, I just turned 70, Elton's 74. He's ready for a break — but again, I never say 'never' with him. All I know is this is a farewell to touring. This is what this 'Farewell Yellow Brick Road' thing is. So, who knows what might happen? He might do something else, revue-wise, or maybe a one-man show somewhere. I have no idea.”
Elton John performs tonight (June 6th) in Leeds, England at First Direct Arena.
