You can understand exactly why some musicians choose to never retire from recording or touring and why we end up in situations where Frankie Valli and Rod Stewart are still being carted out onto stages despite looking as though they don’t have the fortitude to perform anymore.
Without the crowds, excitement, and opportunity to be the centre of attention, some of these artists would be left with nothing else to give, and quitting would feel like conceding to the perils of old age.
However, in some other instances, it’s also understandable why some people choose to retire from the music industry after years of rigorous touring and recording have prevented them from enjoying the quieter moments and spending time with their nearest and dearest. In the case of Phil Collins, after having spent over 40 years on the road with Genesis and as a solo artist, you can see exactly why he would have wished to slow things down in 2011 at the age of 60.
In that span of time, he’d achieved more than most, with number one singles on both sides of the Atlantic and countless accolades that other musicians can only dream of being awarded. Considering that most people tend to consider retirement around the age of 60, or at least begin to notice signs of a life well-lived, catching up with them and posing new health concerns, Collins took the decision to take an extended hiatus from working, and allowed himself the opportunity to settle into a semi-retirement of sorts.
It wasn’t a definitive goodbye, and he promised that the door would remain open to the possibility of returning in the future, but there were very few murmurations from his camp that suggested a return could be in the pipeline. However, in 2016, he shocked the world by announcing his Not Dead Yet tour, which coincided with the release of his autobiography of the same name, and he embarked on a comeback tour in 2017 to promote his memoirs.
What happened on tour?
The tour would end up lasting over two years, and took him around the world, and by the time he stopped in Australia in 2019, he was seemingly fully out of retirement and back to doing what he loved most. In an interview with Australian news outlet The Pipeline, he declared exactly why he’d chosen to take a hiatus when he did, and why he saw fit to return at this moment in time.
“I’d been on the road with Genesis since I was 19, and I’m almost 68 now,” he told the interviewers. “I felt as though I owed myself the opportunity to do nothing. Touring has changed a lot since I was out there with Genesis, you know, you went out on the road, and it was like going to war. When you came back, your kids were driving, and someone else had moved in.”
However, having been quiet for such a long period, he noted that he missed having the overwhelming love and support of his fans was a major reason for returning to the stage, and after joking that his manager was “running a bit short”, he claimed that plenty of people in his life were urging him to make this move.
“[My manager] said, quite rightly, that I should be doing something, and all of my kids said the same,” Collins declared. “I kind of finally realised that I shouldn’t stop what I’ve been doing all my life. I enjoy doing it, and I’m pretty good at it, so here we are.”
