Over the last 50 years, Elton John has sold 300 million record, won five Grammys, and countless other accolades. The legendary singer has had a career that people can only dream of, and now, part of it is coming to an end.
In a sit-down interview with CNN’s Anderson Cooper that was live-streamed around the world, the “Tiny Dancer” singer revealed his plans on retiring from touring.
“The announcement is that I’m not going to be touring anymore. I’m not going to be touring and traveling the world. My priorities have changed. I have young children,” he said.
The 70-year-old singer and husband David Furnish have two sons, Zachary and Elijah, both under the age of seven. In 2015, the family of four sat down with the boys’ school calendar and realized John would be missing most of it.
“[The announcement] doesn’t mean I won’t still be creative,” he cautioned. “But I won’t travel any more…I don’t want to go out with a whimper. I want to go out with a bang…It’ll be the most produced, fantastic show I’ve ever done.”
He will embark on a 300-date farewell tour beginning September 2018 across five countries.
John’s music can be categorized in the rock, pop rock, glam rock, soft rock, and rhythm and blues genres of music – pretty much anything but country, which is why it was so surprising to fans to find out that he actually has charted a song on the country charts.
Titled “Where We Both Say Goodbye,” John sang the song as a duet with Australian country singer Catherine Britt. It was released as a single in the U.S. in 2005 and reached No. 38 on the Billboard Hot Country Songs chart.
Watch a clip of John and Britt recording the song, and talking about how the duet came about, below.
Elton actually has some country twang! Take a listen to the entire duet below.