I am sure it has not escaped you that a number of long lasting rock stars, who have reached the noble age of 70+, are bidding farewell to live concerts, but not without cashing in on one last gigantic global tour. Just to name a few, Elton John, Foreigner, Kiss, Aerosmith have called it quits before 2024 rolls complete. In the middle of all that, we have the Rolling Stones who did a limited tour, are putting out a new album, and lost Charlie Watts, their long time drummer. So we don’t know what they are up to.
In this context, the other day I came across an article about Bruce Springsteen, who, you got it, has launched a gigantic world tour. But I am not sure if it is supposed to be his farewell tour; He is 74 years old. The news was about the postponement of the remainder of his 2023 dates due to something called peptic ulcer disease. I am not going into any more description about the disease, because it is not the subject of my text.
When I read that, my mind went quickly into fact-checking and memory mining. I remembered reading about how the Rolling Stones postponed one of their tours a few years ago, because Mick Jagger had a heart surgery, and needed to recover. Or I recall a decade or so ago, that Black Sabbath postponed their tour because their guitarist, Tony Iommi, had to go through cancer treatment.
I suddenly realized that it is maybe time for these artists to retire, at least from concert tours. I understand they want to give life to their fans, and most of the times they succeed, but man when peptic ulcers and heart valves start delaying your shows, it may be time to stop touring, and abandon all that jazz. No, I am not saying they should abandon the music, nothing stops you from writing, and producing new materials, even doing small ‘fireside’ style shows. As Robert Deniro said in the movie Intern: «Musicians don’t retire. They stop when they have no more music». But .....
Nothing about Rock is complete, if it does not have some Grace Slick in it, who, after being the 1960s hot acid-queen and the 70s rock and roller, said that :
«You can do jazz, classical, blues, opera, country until you’re a hundred and fifty, but rap and rock and roll are really a way for young people to get that anger out.»
And she stopped rock and rolling at age 51.
Paris, January 25, 2024
Zeejay