Retirement is something that most people look forward to in the working world. It’s the closing of one of the biggest chapters of a person’s life and it marks the start of a new one. But, when it comes to musicians retiring, there’s much more than well-wishes, cards, and cake. For a musician’s retirement, there usually involves planning, addressing the fans, and a farewell tour or show.
We were able to get a look at some of the stats and figures of artist’s retirement tours thanks to a new analysis by the folks at AAG. They looked at some of the most popular and influential musicians and bands and broke down the statistics in a delightful series of graphics.
Here are a few of them:
This stunning graphic is all of the analyzed people or groups, organizing them by the amount of shows they performed for their big farewell. Note that all stats on Elton John are projections based on released data (however, it’s safe to say that if everything goes as planned, his will be the grandest farewell tour of them all). Cher and Tina Turner had the most shows of anyone. Cher had over 300 and Turner had nearly 200. An interesting thing to point out is how many of these big names had only one show or a handful of shows.
It’s kind of a stereotype in the industry, but many people take a farewell tour with a grain of salt. As in, this isn’t actually goodbye, this is goodbye for now. It’s goodbye until the reunion tour. Without getting too cynical, a reunion tour is a good way to make some quick cash. The AAG team found a number of groups that not only got back together after their farewell, but also have performed more shows post-”retirement” than pre.
Now if reunion tours are a good way to get some quick money, farewell tours are a way to pad that nest egg a little more (and sometimes a lot more). For the big stars, these tours bring in millions of dollars. Elton John’s tour is projected to gross roughly $400 million. Cher’s raked in over $260 million and even artists with only a few shows, like Phil Collins, brought in $70 million. That’s a whole lot of cash and it’s clear that people are willing to shell out big bucks for a “last chance” to see these stars.
Overall, there’s money to be made and there’s hard work to be done when a musician decides to call it quits. Sure, it may not actually be the final time, but it is a chance for fans to enjoy the music a little longer. It’s fun, even if it’s not really goodbye.