The one concert tour Paul McCartney never liked: “Looks a bit silly now”
The touring lifestyle is where every single rock and roller gets to prove their chops. The whole idea of playing live might seem daunting, but it takes a lot of guts when it goes from playing in a garage or a bar of half-hearted fans to stadiums of people singing along to every word of your song. While Paul McCartney made the stage his second home for the latter half of his life, he knew that some people were clearly starting to be a little bit cagey with their performances from time to time.
But there’s always been some questions surrounding the way Macca approaches his craft. As much as people claim that he doesn’t sing like he used to and is clearly losing his touch, that’s really an unfair claim to make. No one could be expected to sing as they did in their 20s for the rest of their lives, and even though McCartney doesn’t always go for the same screams that he did in his prime, it’s insane to insinuate that he would go up there and put on a show he knew he was incapable of doing.
Then again, maybe that’s because we have grown too accustomed to lavish productions whenever looking at a stage show. Ever since icons like Madonna and Michael Jackson came out, every fan seems to want some sort of spectacle or will likely ask for their money back, but McCartney knows the fact that he is up on that stage trying to pound out the hits is more than enough to get everyone singing along.
And it looks like a lot of that has carried on to the 1970s rockers that came after him. Robert Plant has kept on delivering to the best of his ability even though his style has drastically changed, and while David Gilmour’s voice has also shown a few signs of age over the years, it’s more than enough to get the crowd going when he strikes out on his solo tours and resurrects a few Pink Floyd tunes. However, for Macca, Elton John did have a few kinks in his live armour.
Despite the British piano man having one of the biggest pedigrees as a performer and spits in the face of anyone not pulling their weight onstage, what McCartney took issue with was the idea of him doing farewell tours. Ever since the 1990s, both John and Ozzy Osbourne have been putting up all-star numbers for the number of farewell tours they have done, always saying that this will be the final time, only to come back a few years later.
It might be nice to see some familiar faces out on the road, but McCartney said that he would never want to use John as a reference on how to do a final tour, saying, “Elton’s farewell tours, it just looks a bit silly after a while. I always think, If you’re really giving it up, then you’re really giving it up. I don’t like any half-a**ed giving-it-ups.”
While John has since officially retired from touring now, that doesn’t mean that he doesn’t pop out for the occasional show. He is more interested in being a family man and taking care of his personal health, but sharing the stage with new faces like Chappell Roan is one of the best ways that he can keep the lights on when it comes to any new faces on the charts.
Although McCartney could easily tour for the rest of his life until he drops, he knew that a farewell tour wouldn’t be in the cards. Since life is unpredictable, touring will always be a constant for rockstars, and it would be a cold day in hell before the former Beatle lies to his fans and tricks them into watching a goodbye tour twice.
