Do international musicians truly retire?

If there is an exception to the rule of retirement in global musical circles, it has got to be the Rolling Stones who, with an average age of 74, are still rocking the world as they embarked on yet another live jaunt since September last year in Hamburg, called the No Filter tour, which is scheduled to conclude in July 2018 in Warsaw. For the trivia-minded, drummer Charlie Watts is the oldest member at 77 and rhythm guitarist Ronnie Wood is the youngest at 71!

Be it in the West or the East, musicians are often not ready to retire. While there are only a handful who can live upto their glorious past, but the flavour of the year now appears to be: nothing lasts forever. Following a bold decision in 2017 that saw Birmingham rockers Black Sabbath announce in March that year that they had disbanded, Canadian rock trio Rush too announced in January this year, through guitarist Alex Lifeson, that the band “have no plans to tour or record any more”. That, then, has opened the floodgates of artistes announcing their respective retirements.

Among the big ticket items that have announced that 2018 is their swan song year include Florida-originated, Southern rock band, Lynyrd Skynyrd who, on January 25, announced their Last Of The Street Survivors Farewell Tour, which commenced in May. Undoubtedly, one of my favourite bands, which I first connected through their live double-vinyl album, 1976’s One More From The Road, I have since built a healthy collection of their CDs and it will be difficult to accept that this band, still featuring original guitarist Gary Rossington, will no longer exist soon.

Similarly, the songwriting half of duo Simon & Garfunkel, Paul Simon, is also in the midst of his retirement. On February 5, Simon announced his retirement from performing in an open letter addressed to fans, citing time for his family and, simultaneously, announcing his final tour, dubbed Homeward Bound – The Farewell Tour. It commenced on May 16 in Vancouver and will encompass shows across North America, U.K., and Europe, with a final concert scheduled in New York City on September 22 later this year. Then there is Elton John who, on January 24, announced that he would be retiring from touring by embarking on a 300-show, three-year Farewell Yellow Brick tour, commencing in Allentown, Pennsylvania on September 8. I was fortunate to see Sir Elton perform live in Dubai in October 2002 at the Golf And Yacht Club, where he performed solo, running through 22 of his hits across two and a half hours!

Of course, there are multiple artists announcing farewell tours in the past, but they appear to be more of media gimmicks. Three that readily come to mind are Kiss, who at first announced a last hurrah in 2000, but have returned to the road on several occasions since. The other is Scorpions, who announced a goodbye in 2010, but continue to rock the world! Similarly, Deep Purple – who I have viewed performing live thrice – embarked on The Long Goodbye Tour – on May 13 last year, in Bucharest, but there is no timeline set for the tour to end!

The recent spate of announcements makes me wonder whether these “retirements” are genuine or just a marketing ploy of making money for their not-so-productive years. Meanwhile, from an Indian perspective, I do not recall a single singer ever announcing their retirement. Although there are some that just faded away or, as the case is, should have faded away, artistes continue to remain part of the industry, commencing from launching solo albums after which, if lucky, they enter the Bollywood music industry. But their touring never stops, after which they perform at private functions, and some take the ridiculous step of considering themselves competent enough to attempt turning into Bollywood stars.

So, in conclusion, the question that begs to be answered is: should artistes retire? I guess the only answer here is for musicians themselves to decide. For instance, with the Rolling Stones, I saw them performing in Abu Dhabi on February 21, 2014 leaving me in no doubt that the dubbing of the Rolling Stones as “the greatest rock and roll band in the world” was certainly not a myth and, much like wine, it proved that the band, as performers, only seem to get better. And, if this is what they sound at this [st]age in life then, as they say, it’s only rock and roll…but I like it!

The writer has been part of the media and entertainment business for over 23 years. He continues to pursue his hobby and earns an income out of it.