Young delivered one of his most definitive statements. He criticised artists who go on farewell tours, labelling them as “bullshit”. The discussion came from a host of legends such as Elton John, Ozzy Osbourne and Paul Simon, all committing to final runs.
When quizzed on his thoughts on a farewell tour, Young told Rolling Stone: “ When I retire, people will know, because I’ll be dead.”
“They’ll know, ‘He’s not coming back! He retired.’ But I’m not gonna say, ‘I’m not coming back.’ What kind of bullshit is that? I could go out and play if I felt like it, but I don’t feel like it. I’ve got a great band. I’ve got two great bands – I’ve got Promise of the Real and Crazy Horse. They’re both great bands and they’re different. But they both can play a lot of shit”, he continued.
All these farewell tours go on for like five years. The Who have been on a farewell tour for like 30 years. So I think it’s pointless. If I’m going to stop, I’m just going to stop. But I don’t see that happening.
“So when I do go out, I have things to put out there,” he added. “Right now, I’m not ready to tour right now. I have a funny feeling in my body that I listen to, and it just says no. It will say yes when it’s ready. I’m just listening to the muse, and the muse just says take a break.”
“Garth Books and others like him have been responsible and pulled back from doing shows,” Young wrote in a post on the Neil Young Archives. “That’s a good example. But it will take big promoters and managers/agents to make the difference. It’s all about the money… The big promoters, if they had the awareness, could stop these shows. Without that, everyone just keeps going like everything is OK. It’s not.”
Billy Joel: "You know what a farewell tour is? Is just a way of getting people to buy tickets, they don’t think they’re going to see you anymore.
Piano Man says: "I’m looking at it and thinking to myself, okay, maybe it will be his farewell tour, but that doesn’t mean he’s not going to play again.
I mean, Elton lives in England. Maybe he’ll play in London and do a residency like I’m doing in New York. You never know.”
