Rod Stewart sets a final date with the road

Rod Stewart has decided that the big arena circuit has had enough of him, or perhaps the other way around. The 81-year-old said on Monday that the coming Final Encore Tour will be his last rock ’n’ roll tour, after six decades of touring. He does not intend to stop performing altogether, which is a useful distinction in the music business, where farewell often means something closer to a long goodbye.

The dates are already set. The tour begins in Ireland in April 2027 and then moves through Germany in June before ending on 24 July 2027 at the ZAG Arena in Hannover. Stewart is also due to play the Uber Arena in Berlin on 1 June, the PSD Bank Dome in Düsseldorf on 3 June and the Olympiahalle in Munich on 20 June. For a final run, it is still a fairly busy calendar.

The announcement follows a difficult period for the singer. In August he cancelled the rest of his US tour after doctors found a narrowing in a coronary artery and fitted a stent. Before that, in June, he had already been dealing with an acute respiratory infection, laryngitis and voice problems. His wife, Penny Lancaster, later said that the heart issue had not been detected earlier.

At the time, a spokesman said the doctors were satisfied with his recovery. Stewart was said to be feeling better, back to normal activity and advised to rest for four weeks before returning to the stage. He apologised to fans for the cancellations and thanked the medical staff. Touring has a way of reminding even the most seasoned performer that the body does not always cooperate with the schedule.

Born Sir Roderick David Stewart in north London on 10 January 1945, he became known for his rough voice and his mix of rock, folk, soul and rhythm and blues. His breakthrough came in 1971 with Every Picture Tells a Story and the single Maggie May, which both reached number one in Britain and the United States at the same time.

From there came the songs that have long anchored his live shows: You Wear It Well, Sailing, Tonight’s the Night, The First Cut Is the Deepest and I Don’t Want to Talk About It. Sailing became a number-one hit in Britain and remains one of his best-known ballads. Stewart has sold more than 120 million records worldwide and was knighted in 2016 for services to music and charity.

He also has one of those pop-history footnotes that sounds inflated until the figures are repeated: a New Year’s Eve concert on Copacabana Beach in Rio de Janeiro in 1994, said to have drawn several million spectators. The Final Encore Tour is being presented as a thank-you to that audience and to the wider public that has followed him for six decades. After so long on the road, the farewell is at least properly scheduled.

Written by Sandy van Dongen sandy.vandongen@alpineweekly.com