Elton John has announced his retirement several different times, but Paul McCartney, John Lennon, George Harrison, and Ringo Starr took a different approach when they wanted The Beatles to stop live performances. Rather than announcing it, they simply stopped. McCartney said he never wanted to do a grand farewell tour or even break up The Beatles when he got sick of them. He believed there was always a chance of reunion. McCartney specifically said that he didn’t want to take John’s approach.
Paul McCartney didn’t want The Beatles to approach a farewell tour like Elton John did
After playing a show in San Francisco’s Candlestick Park in 1966, The Beatles never toured again. They continued to make music together for the next several years, though. McCartney said they brought up the possibility of breaking up before they officially split, but he tended to push back against it. He felt it was a bit embarrassing to break up and get back together multiple times.
“Periodically John would say, ‘I want to give it all up; that’s what we should all do.’ I always would think, no,” he said in the book Paul McCartney: Many Years From Now by Barry Miles. “What if in six months’ time we want to pick it up again?”
He pointed to John, who first announced his retirement in 1977. As the “Tiny Dancer” singer just wrapped up his final farewell tour in 2023, he clearly didn’t stick to his promise of retirement.
“It’s like Elton’s farewell tours, it just looks a bit silly after a while,” McCartney said. “I always think, If you’re really giving it up, then you’re really giving it up. I don’t like any half-a**ed giving-it-ups.”
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McCartney said that it would be too difficult to entirely give up on success, which his bandmates didn’t seem to consider. He also noted that their fame wouldn’t disappear just because they retired.
“I said, ‘Hey, the hardest thing for us guys to do would be to give up fame. To wake up the next morning and not be a star anymore can’t happen. What do you mean, you’re not going to be a star? You’re going to be the retired star. And if that’s what you want, then that’s a different matter but don’t get this idea that everyone’s going to go away. Greta Garbo got more attention than ever with “I want to be alone.” They were still trying to take topless pictures of her when she was seventy.’”
The Beatles would have had a hard time working together again
Despite what McCartney thought, once The Beatles split, a reunion six months later didn’t seem likely for them. Their band relations were growing chilly in the second half of the 1960s, and after manager Brian Epstein’s death, they struggled through business relations. McCartney said that anytime he spoke about business with Lennon or Harrison, it devolved into shouting.
As a result, any attempts to navigate a reunion tour, or even just a reunion album, would have been a slog for the band. Given their difficulties working together, it seems unlikely that they could have even reunited for a single concert.
Paul McCartney watched Elton John during his farewell tour
While McCartney didn’t want to approach a farewell tour like John, he did like watching the other artist perform. John played Glastonbury Festival in 2023 during his Farewell Yellow Brick Road tour. Fans thought McCartney might be a special guest onstage, but he was just there as a fan.
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