It feels like Elton John‘s Farewell Yellow Brick Road tour has been going on forever, and it kind of has: It started back in 2018 and right now, it’s set to conclude in July 2023. Then, Elton swears, it’ll be over for good.
“I can tell you now that this is it,” he tells the British publication MusicWeek. “I will not be devoid of music, but as far as schlepping around the world doing shows, I don’t want to do it anymore. I’ve done it since I was 17.”
While Elton wants to wind things down touring-wise, his music career has had a big resurgence over the past few years. His set list includes both his first number-one hit — 1970’s “Your Song” — and his most recent number-one hit, which came last year with the Dua Lipa duet “Cold Heart.”
“I’m a 75-year-old heritage musician with a great catalog of songs and a great track record, but that doesn’t mean to say you stay relevant,” Elton points out. He thanks his management — which includes his husband David Furnish — for keeping him that way, and of course, Dua helped, too.
“She’s got everything there is to have as a female artist,” Elton says. “She’s bright, modest and not carried away by her own success.”
In fact, Elton feels young female artists like Dua and the bands HAIM and Wet Leg are “making the best music” these days. “It comes from innocence and pure joy and that, for me, is what music is about,” he says of those acts.
As for young male artists, Elton says he just got a listen to Lewis Capaldi’s eagerly anticipated sophomore album. While he reveals that Lewis has “apprehensions” about it, in his opinion, he says, “it’s a no-brainer.”
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