Elton John's veteran guitarist and musical director Davey Johnstone has a "sneaking feeling" that the singer will not retire at the close of his Farewell Yellow Brick Road tour.
"I know that when we finish this three-year monster we’ll be done with touring," Johnstone told Billboard. "But at the same time there’s a sneaking feeling there might be a one-off here and there that we’ll play. We’ll do a festival or we’ll do this or that."
"Guys like us don’t retire," he added. "This is really not a short-term thing for us. It’s never been, like ‘(Get) in, make a lot of money, get out.’ It’s always been, ‘Okay, what’s gonna happen now? What do we do next?’"
Johnstone readily accepted the wisdom of the singer's decision to quit touring. "This has been an abnormal career for rock ’n’ roll," he said.
"There’s only ever been us and the (Rolling) Stones. U2 are creeping up on us, although we’ve probably got 10 years on them, and the Stones have 10 years on us. We’ve always been a hard-touring band, a hard-working band, and that’s allowed (Elton) to become a megastar the world over. But you can’t do that forever. Nobody can."
"Guys like us don’t retire," he added. "This is really not a short-term thing for us. It’s never been, like ‘(Get) in, make a lot of money, get out.’ It’s always been, ‘Okay, what’s gonna happen now? What do we do next?’"
Johnstone readily accepted the wisdom of the singer's decision to quit touring. "This has been an abnormal career for rock ’n’ roll," he said.
"There’s only ever been us and the (Rolling) Stones. U2 are creeping up on us, although we’ve probably got 10 years on them, and the Stones have 10 years on us. We’ve always been a hard-touring band, a hard-working band, and that’s allowed (Elton) to become a megastar the world over. But you can’t do that forever. Nobody can."
Songs on the set-list for the Farewell Yellow Brick Road tour are catering for local popularity. "Sacrifice was a big song, No.1, in England, so we'll do that in England and Europe when we finally get there," said the guitarist.
"Skyline Pigeon was a massive hit in South America, God knows why. So we’ll do that down there. There are certain other territories that have favorites, also, so we'll be mindful of those as (the tour) goes on."
