'I Do What I Love': Rod Stewart, 79, Announces ‘End of Large Scale World Tours’ but Has No Plans to Retire

Rod Stewart’s days of touring the world are over

Published Time: 21.11.2024 - 13:31:11 Modified Time: 21.11.2024 - 13:31:11

Rod Stewart’s days of touring the world are over.

In a post shared on Instagram on Wednesday, Nov. 20, the 79-year-old rocker announced that he's hanging up his microphone when it comes to large-scale tours — though he said he has no plans to retire just yet.

“This will be the end of large-scale world tours for me, but I have no desire to retire,” he wrote in a statement. “I love what I do, and I do what I love.”

“I’m fit, have a full head of hair, and can run 100 meters in 18 seconds at the jolly old age of 79,” he continued, before sharing his plans for what he’d like to do next in his career.

“I’d like to move onto a Great American Songbook, Swing Fever tour the year after next — smaller venues and more intimacy,” he wrote,

The Rock & Roll Hall of Famer then left the proposal up in the air by teasing, “But then again, I may not…” and signing off the statement with, “The Ambiguous Sir Rod Stewart.”

Stewart’s announcement comes after he revealed earlier this month that his One Last Time tour will hit the U.S. and Canada for 20 new shows starting in March in Austin, Texas and ending in St. Louis in August.

The musician, who previously took the tour across Europe and Asia, will also play 13 Las Vegas shows at The Colosseum at Caesars Palace from March through June.

Stewart releas -

ed his 33rd studio album Swing Fever in February with Jools Holland.

In 2023, the singer opened up to PEOPLE about his desire to stop doing large-scale tours and again insisted that he wasn't retiring.

"This will be the last time 'round, I think, to do the rock 'n' roll stuff because I want to move on to swing music and the Great American Song Book," he said. "But I'm not taking my songs to the cemetery and burying them. I might bring them out on the odd occasion, but I basically would like to put them to rest for a little while. No more big tours. I've said farewell to Australia and New Zealand and Mexico, so it's time to say farewell to the U.S. now."

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Stewart is a dad to eight children. His two youngest — Alastair Wallace, 18, and Aiden Patrick, 13, whom he shares with his wife Penny Lancaster — live with the pair in their L.A. home.

He is also father to sons Sean, 44, Liam, 30, and daughters Sarah, 60, Kimberly, 45, Ruby, 37, and Renee, 32.

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