Elton John – Farewell Yellow Brick Road Tour

The pub paid better than the Royal Academy ever did.

At fifteen, Reginald Dwight began playing piano at the Northwood Hills Hotel pub near his home in Pinner, Middlesex. He had won a junior scholarship to the Royal Academy of Music at eleven, attending Saturday classes for five years. The pub gigs paid better than theory lessons, and the boy who could play anything by ear started building a repertoire of Jim Reeves, Ray Charles, and whatever the crowd wanted to hear.

Two strangers who never shared a room wrote the soundtrack to a generation.

Reg Dwight answered an advert in the New Musical Express placed by Liberty Records, looking for talent. He failed the audition but was handed an envelope of lyrics written by a young poet from Lincolnshire named Bernie Taupin. The two had never met. Taupin wrote words; Dwight wrote music. They began collaborating by post, and the partnership that would produce some of the most recognisable songs in popular music was born without the two ever being in the same room.

Six nights at a West Hollywood club, and Britain's brightest new act had conquered America before the week was out.

On 25 August 1970, Elton John played his first American concert at the Troubadour club in West Hollywood. The six-night residency, opening for David Ackles, was a sensation. Neil Diamond, Leon Russell, and the Beach Boys' Brian Wilson were in the audience. Robert Hilburn of the Los Angeles Times wrote a rave review the following morning, and by the end of the week, Elton John was the most talked-about new act in America. His self-titled second album and "Your Song" followed shortly after, reaching the top ten on both sides of the Atlantic.

Seven studio albums in four years, each outselling the last; the costumes got wilder, the concerts grander, and 30 million copies of one double album say the rest.

The double album Goodbye Yellow Brick Road, released in October 1973, spent eight weeks at number one in the US and produced four singles including "Bennie and the Jets", "Candle in the Wind", and the title track. It has since sold over 30 million copies worldwide. By this point, Elton was releasing albums at a staggering pace: seven studio albums in four years, each one charting higher than the last. The costumes grew more elaborate, the glasses more outlandish, and the shows became full-scale theatrical performances.

Over 100,000 people watched Elton take the Dodger Stadium stage in a sequined baseball uniform and five-inch platform boots.

On 25 and 26 October 1975, Elton John played two sold-out concerts at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles to a combined audience of over 100,000. He arrived on stage in a sequined Dodgers uniform, and the shows were broadcast on television. It was a high-water mark of 1970s rock excess: the costumes, the five-inch platform boots, the grand piano centre stage. These concerts remain among the most iconic live performances in rock history and were later referenced in the 2019 biopic Rocketman.

Over $600 million raised and counting; sobriety, it turns out, suits a legacy rather well.

After achieving sobriety in 1990, Elton John founded the Elton John AIDS Foundation in 1992. It has since raised over $600 million for HIV/AIDS prevention, education, and treatment worldwide. The foundation became central to his public identity, and his annual Oscar Party, held on the night of the Academy Awards, grew into one of the most sought-after invitations in Hollywood. His personal reinvention in this period was matched by a commercial one: "Sacrifice" became his first solo UK number one in 1990, and a string of hits followed.

Thirty-three million copies sold; a lyric rewritten overnight, and every penny given away.

On 6 September 1997, Elton John performed a reworked version of "Candle in the Wind" at the funeral of Diana, Princess of Wales, in Westminster Abbey. Bernie Taupin rewrote the lyrics overnight. The single, released as "Candle in the Wind 1997" / "Something About the Way You Look Tonight", sold 33 million copies worldwide, making it the best-selling single in chart history. All proceeds went to the Diana, Princess of Wales Memorial Fund. It was a moment that transcended music entirely.

Over 450 performances across two residencies; proof that a legacy act could reinvent the concert rather than retire it.

In February 2004, Elton John launched The Red Piano, a residency show at The Colosseum at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas, with staging designed by David LaChapelle. The show ran until 2009 and was followed by The Million Dollar Piano residency from 2011 to 2018. Across both residencies, he performed over 450 shows on the Strip. The format proved that a legacy artist could command a permanent stage in Vegas without it feeling like a retirement party. It was, instead, a reinvention of the concert experience.

Six million fans. Nearly a billion dollars. The most lucrative farewell tour ever played.

Announced in January 2018, the Farewell Yellow Brick Road Tour was billed as Elton John's final ever tour. It began on 8 September 2018 in Allentown, Pennsylvania, and was originally planned to conclude in 2021. The COVID-19 pandemic and a hip injury extended the schedule. Over five years and nine legs, the tour visited North America, Europe, and Oceania, encompassing 330 shows attended by 6.1 million people. It grossed $939.1 million, making it the highest-grossing tour of all time at its conclusion.

Stockholm's Tele2 Arena witnessed Sir Elton's final curtain call, closing over 4,000 concerts with "Goodbye Yellow Brick Road".

On 8 July 2023, Elton John played the final concert of the Farewell Yellow Brick Road Tour at Tele2 Arena in Stockholm, Sweden. The set closed, as it had for years, with "Goodbye Yellow Brick Road". He had previously played a landmark final North American show at Dodger Stadium in November 2022, nearly 47 years after his legendary 1975 concerts at the same venue. The Disney+ livestream of the Dodger Stadium finale was watched by an estimated 2 million viewers. With a knighthood, five Grammys, two Oscars, and over 4,000 concerts behind him, Sir Elton stepped off the touring stage for good.