The farewell tour is a tried and true ritual at the end of an artist's career, yielding varying results. In recent times, Elton John has gone out on a high — even if said tour took years longer than expected — while Aerosmith were unable to finish saying goodbye due to Steve Tyler's vocal injury.
At nearly 75 years of age, some have been speculating that Bruce Springsteen may have a farewell tour of his own on the horizon, especially after having to postpone shows due to vocal issues this year and having put off the remainder of his 2023 tour after being diagnosed with peptic ulcer disease. The billionaire Boss himself, however, is adamant that this is not the case.
At his Philadelphia concert on Friday (August 23), Springsteen told the crowd at Citizens Bank Park, "We've been around for 50 fuckin' years, and we ain't quitting! We ain't doing no farewell tour bullshit! Jesus Christ! No farewell tour for the E Street Band!"
"Farewell to what? A thousand people screaming your name? Get the hell out," the Boss added. "I ain't going anywhere!"
In a recent interview with The Telegraph, E Street Band guitarist Steven Van Zandt also addressed the rumours. "We treat every show like it could be the last show, and we've been doing that for 50 years. But the audience is still there, and we can see them getting younger every year," the musician explained. "I don't see the end anywhere in sight, to be honest, especially in Europe, where we're bigger than we've ever been. I think we can play every summer for evermore, man."
Van Zandt continued, "I love that the Stones are still out there, because as long as they're out there, man, we're still the new kids on the block, right? So I'm good with that."