Sir Elton John announces he's quitting live performances after final three-year farewell world tour

Sir Elton John is quitting… touring, that is.

The legendary singer, 70, has called a day on the demands of world touring and concert performing; revealing the news on his official site at 5.30pm GMT – and obviously the site crashed.

A graphic saying, ‘I’ve finally decided my future lies…’ dissolved into a countdown on the front page of his site prior to the announcement.

He even set up an #EltonEvent hashtag that covers his Twitter account, and shared some teaser tweets to get his fans wondering.

A live-stream of Elton performing in New York suddenly came on, before sitting down with CNN’s Anderson Cooper to discuss the big reveal.

‘I am not gonna be touring anymore,’ the 70-year-old said. However, he did reveal that from the end of September he will begin one last – and hugely epic – three-year tour called The Farewell Yellow Brick Road Tour.

‘My priorities have changed in my life,’ he said. ‘We had children and that changed our lives.’

The reason for stopping, he said, was down to his family commitments and wanting to see his children Zachary Jackson, 7, and Elijah, 5, grow up. ‘I don’t wanna miss too much of this,’ as he recalled speaking about when he and husband David Furnish, 55, sat down in 2015 to discuss the family’s future.

‘It will take three years’ to fully ‘say goodbye properly’ to every one of his fans, he said.

He spoke to Anderson about how his boys were at a stage where they need to spend time together. ‘I don’t wanna miss them and I don’t want them to miss me.

‘I’ve had a pretty god run,’ Elton said, and went on to promise one of the most unforgettable tours of his career, with the ‘most produced, fantastic show I’ve ever done.’

Sir Elton has been no stranger to globe trotting to perform his catalogue of hits, but after almost half a century of doing so is about to embark on one final tour coming to a close in 2021.

After contracting a rare bacterial infection while on tour in South America last year, the news of touring retirement has not come as a surprise to some. When he became ill on a flight back to the UK from Santiago, Chile, the star ended up spending 12 days in hospital, with two of those in intensive care.

In 2013, he was forced to cancel a summer concert at London’s Hyde Park and had to undergo emergency appendicitis surgery that otherwise could’ve killed him without the necessary treatment.

The Candle in the Wind performer began his first tour in 1970. He’s currently got a residency at The Colosseum at Caesar’s Palace in Las Vegas, with scheduled dates until this May. The show, titled The Million Dollar Piano, began in 2011 and followed on from his massively successful five-year stint of The Red Piano from 2004 to 2009. It was reported back in 2015 that he was earning a staggering £350,000 per show.

Sir Elton is the second legend to announce his concerting retirement in a week, albeit for very different reasons, after Neil Diamond revealed he was stopping due to suffering from Parkinson’s Disease.

Fans will now eagerly be awaiting the release of tickets to see their hero perform one final time.

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