LOS ANGELES –
Forty seven years after he took the stage at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles in a sequined-studded baseball uniform because the world’s greatest pop star, Elton John walked on to the identical stage on Sunday evening carrying a bedazzled Dodgers bathrobe, a uniform extra becoming for a 75-year-old man on the verge of retirement.
The crowd of greater than 50,000 roared at the moment that got here within the remaining minutes of the ultimate North American live performance of a tour John says will probably be his final.
“I need to spend time with my household as a result of I’ll be 76 subsequent 12 months, he mentioned. “I need to carry them out and present you why I’m retiring.”
He embraced and kissed his husband, David Furnish, whereas his two sons, 11-year-old Zachary and 9-year-old Elijah, carrying matching Dodgers jackets that learn “Elton” on the again, waved gleefully at the gang.
John then broke into “Goodbye Yellow Brick Road,” the inevitable remaining tune that gave the “Farewell Yellow Brick Road” tour its title.
The crowd stuffed with rocket males and rocket ladies, of blue jean infants and LA girls, many John’s age however a lot of their 20s and 30s and 40s, swayed and sang alongside as they’d all through the two-hour present throughout songs like “Rocket Man” and “Tiny Dancer.” Some wiped away tears.
Many had been carrying their very own sequins and spangles, glowing spectacles, high hats, feather boas, and in a couple of circumstances, Donald Duck fits, representing levels of John’s 55-year profession.
“Thank you all for dressing up,” John mentioned, “it makes me so joyful if you put on probably the most incredible costumes.”
When that final tune ended, John shed the gown and uncovered one other retirement outfit, a green-and-red tracksuit, and climbed right into a small, clear elevator that lifted him into a gap within the backdrop. He might then be seen on a large video display strolling down a yellow brick street into the space.
Many others joined John for the event.
Kiki Dee took the stage to sing their duet “Don’t Go Breaking My Heart.”
“In 1975, this girl was right here with me, and we sang this tune,” John mentioned as he introduced out Dee. “I requested her to come back and recreate that unimaginable moment.”
John jumped from his traditional keyboard spot, grabbed a mic and sang and danced with Dee as his rehearsal piano participant Adam Chester pounded the keys in his place.
John performed “Don’t Let the Sun Go Down on Me” in tribute to the 4 bandmates who’ve died throughout his profession, and after the primary verse introduced on one other visitor, shouting, “girls and gents, Brandi Carlile!”
The moment was an unstated tribute to a different late collaborator, George Michael, who dueted with John in the identical approach on the tune in 1991.
Carlile, who was central to Joni Mitchell ‘s latest return to the stage, was carrying her personal Dodger-themed spangled swimsuit. She belted out her verses and made a “are you able to consider this?!” face to the gang as John put his arm round her and the soaked within the applause.
A drum machine pounded as Dua Lipa, in a black costume that contrasted with the sparkles on everybody else, got here out for the primary of the encores, “Cold Heart,” her 2021 hit with John.
“I can not inform you the way it feels to be 75 years previous and to have the No. 1 file all over the world,” John mentioned after. “And this was my very first hit, 52 years in the past.”
He began enjoying piano chords and sang, “It’s a bit of bit humorous, this sense inside,” the opening line to 1970’s “Your Song.”
“That was your tune, Los Angeles!” he shouted after.
About two hours earlier, after taking the stage in a tuxedo with sequins that flared right into a flame design and opening the live performance with “Benny and the Jets,” he defined the importance of the town to his music.
“All proper, it is a very particular evening for me, a really emotional evening for me, and it has been a protracted journey, and I first got here right here to America in 1970 to the City of Angels, Los Angeles, and I performed a membership known as the Troubadour.”
The live performance, which streamed reside on Disney+, was the final of a three-night stand at the stadium (and his 103rd present within the LA space, he advised the gang). The Farewell Yellow Brick Road tour started in September 2018 with the primary of the 300-plus scheduled dates. It was suspended in 2020 due to the COVID pandemic and resumed in 2021.
In January, John heads to Australia and New Zealand, then strikes on to Britain and Europe. He’s set to conclude in Sweden in July, although he is made it clear he’s solely accomplished travelling, not making music.
Many of these backing him up have been in his band from the beginning, or very close to it, together with Nigel Olsson, his drummer since 1969, and Davey Johnstone, his guitarist since 1971, who at age 71 stood at the entrance of the stage and led the band via a ripping model of “Saturday Night’s Alright for Fighting.”
John additionally offered a uncommon on-stage glimpse of an much more long-running collaborator, the person who wrote a lot of the phrases the gang sang together with all evening, lyricist Bernie Taupin.
“We’ve been writing collectively now since 1967,” John mentioned as he hugged Taupin, who couldn’t have contrasted together with his writing associate extra together with his bald head and plain, earth-toned coat. “We nonetheless love one another greater than we have ever accomplished earlier than.”