David Furnish, Elton John’s partner and manager of Rocket Entertainment, has spoken about the singer's decision to embark on a farewell tour.
The couple are parents to two sons aged five and seven.
Speaking to the Financial Times, Furnish said: "He even used to say, ‘I want to die on stage’, which didn’t used to bring me a lot of joy.
"We needed to launch a farewell tour so he could get off the road and spend time with his children."
Furnish, a 55-year old Canadian and former advertising executive, met Elton at a dinner party in 1993. They embarked on a civil partnership in 2005 and married in 2014.
In 2015, Furnish became chief executive of Rocket Entertainment, which company sits atop the other companies that are part of the Elton conglomerate, companies like Rocket Music, a management company and Rocket Sports, which is involved in Football management.
"Before I took over it was very much a world of silos," he says. "It used to be frustrating to me sitting on the sidelines. Nobody was pulling it all together. Elton would get very frustrated about being pulled from place to place all the time. So I brought everyone together and I wrote the first long-term business plan in the history of Elton’s career."
Furnish said of working with his partner: "I’m living with the brand, I understand what the brand is doing on a day-to-day basis.
"In advertising we used to say, know your client’s business better than they do. Well, I think I’ve ticked that box."
The long-tailed Farewell Yellow Brick Road tour begins its US leg in September, and Elton is scheduled to pack in touring in 2021 when the iconic singer will be 74.
