Elton John WOWS Glastonbury for the Final Time
The “Farewell Yellow Brick Road” tour has had a long and winding road for rock icon Elton John, but the UK is home and this performance was to be the last for his illustrious career with the home field advantage.
The June 25, 2023 performance closed the show for this year’s Glastonbury Festival to approximately 7.6 million viewers on BBC One, the biggest overnight audience for a Glastonbury set. We couldn’t help but share “Rocketman” from this year’s festival and do some digging into other entrancing tour highlights from Elton John’s amazing career.
Rocking the World, One Tour at a Time
1975 – “Pinball Wizard”
His concert at Dodger Stadium in 1975, part of his Rock to Westies tour, was the stuff legends are made of, check him out performing “Pinball Wizard” to close the show. Sure the song originated from The Who but after Elton’s performance in “Tommy” he made this a showstopper and closes a wild night in true Elton John fashion.
1980 – “Bennie and The Jets”
“Bennie and The Jets” gets belted out during this 1980 performance from Central Park in New York City before a crowd estimated at 400,000.
1985 – “Don’t Let the Sun Go Down On Me”
In 1985, “Don’t Let the Sun Go Down On Me” was enhanced during Elton’s Live-Aid performance. He was live at Wembley Stadium before a crowd of 72,000, and around the world in homes everywhere during the worldwide broadcast. George Michael came to the stage to join the performance.
2019 – “Your Song”
In 2019, Elton brought out … himself (well movie Elton at least). Taron Egerton, who starred as Elton in the Rocketman film, joins Elton for “Your Song” and was the first guest on his farewell tour from Hove, UK.
2022 – “Goodbye Yellow Brick Road”
At the American farewell Elton returned to Dodger Stadium in 2022 for this performance of “Goodbye Yellow Brick Road.”
We hope you enjoyed this look back at some special performances from the man who set records for viewership at Glastonbury 2023. He has a few remaining performances on the tour as they were rescheduled dates in Paris, Zurich, Copenhagen and Stockholm before the tour wraps. Something tells us, however, this isn’t our final farewell.
What is your favorite Elton John performance, and how many times have you seen him live?