The ranks of the rock stars who helped invent the concept of arena rock in the 1970s have been steadily thinning for much of the past decade. This year has brought news that three more of the giants of the genre are ready for their final go-rounds. Within weeks of one another, folk icon Paul Simon, hard rock legend Ozzy Osbourne and piano pop superstar Elton John each announced what they are calling their final tours.
Each artist has forged a unique path into retirement from the road. Osbourne is mostly forgoing arenas in favor of his preferred outdoor amphitheater and festival plays on his tour’s first leg. John, whose massive 300-show extravaganza called “Farewell Yellow Brick Road” will hit five continents and stretch through to 2021, is playing as many arenas as possible. Simon, for now, is seemingly picking and choosing a select group of venues.
Of the three, Simon has initially released the most modest string of dates for his Homeward Bound: The Farewell Tour, with just 21 North American arena stops announced, kicking off in Canada at Rogers Arena in Vancouver, British Columbia, on May 18 and stretching through a June 20 show at Bridgestone Arena in Nashville.
Osbourne’s No More Tours 2 — a mix of festival gigs and mostly amphitheater shows mixed with a handful of arenas — will kick into gear in North America at the PPL Center in Allentown, Pa., on Aug. 30. Current shows have been announced through Oct. 13 at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas, with more dates to be announced.
John will launch his final tour, like Osbourne, at the PPL Center in Allentown, on Sept. 8. North American arena dates have been booked through March 2019 at the BB&T Center in Sunrise, Fla., with many more shows to come.
With so many lucrative arena shows in the offing, Ed Rubinstein, CEO of the 32-venue Arena Network, said his organization’s first move when these tours are announced is to try to find a carve-out date that might give one of his buildings a shot. “These tours are pretty well routed by AEG for Elton or, for Ozzy and Paul Simon, Live Nation, so we will always call the agent and see if there are some venues that didn’t get a look and try to get included,” said Rubinstein.
With John playing 300 shows, Rubinstein said he couldn’t see how many more could be added, though the network has landed 13 announced gigs so far at venues including the Legacy Arena at BJCC in Birmingham, Ala.; TD Garden in Boston; and Colonial Life Arena in Columbia, S.C. Though the network has only two confirmed dates on the Simon tour, Rubinstein was confident that there might be more dates available in the future, which could mean more business for his arenas.
Even when he knows it might be the last shot at an act, Rubinstein said the approach is the same: “We don’t press harder. With someone like Elton playing so many venues, the ones he’s not playing are probably ones where he might not do as well or not as large as he needs,” he said. “But we do have aggressive venues where even if they don’t fit the profile, they will try to get on that list.”
David Kells, vice president of booking for Bridgestone Arena in Nashville, has no complaints about how the last hurrah tours are shaping up, since both John and Simon are slated to hit his venue. And he knows exactly why. “Nashville has proven that we have the ability to sell tickets, and after a time when Nashville was sometimes skipped over by bigger tours or was included in second legs, Bridgestone especially has proven it can sell tickets and is on everyone’s radar,” he said.
Kells said he was especially proud of landing one of the rare Simon dates because it’s proof that promoters, artists, agents and managers trust Bridgestone Arena with a big show.
Other venues, like the Prudential Center in Newark, N.J., will have to make do with just one of the acts … for now. John is slated to touch down for the first (and last) time in his career at Prudential, but so far Simon has not announced a single date in the area, though Prudential’s executive vice president of entertainment programming, Sean Saadeh, hasn’t given up hope. “We keep our eye on what’s going out, we are proactive and we stay on things that we know are booked,” said Saadeh, mirroring Kells’ mantra about constantly reaching out and keeping strong communication with both AEG and Live Nation, as well as with their partners at MSG and the Oak View Group (OVG is the owner of VenuesNow).
While every show is special, Saadeh said that, because it’s John’s final swing and his debut at Prudential, the plan is to make it a special night for the artist and the audience, though he’s holding the details close to his vest for now. Though Osbourne is playing the amphitheater in nearby Allentown, Saadeh said he’d love to host Ozzy and has reached out with the knowledge that a future arena date could be in play.
What about fears from some that the thinning of the major rock act ranks could spell trouble down the line? “The good news is that our business is really healthy now, the touring business has never been stronger and it gives me hope that there are quite a few artists in the pipeline that will continue to fill our venues at the highest level,” Saadeh said.
Live Nation’s president of U.S. concerts, Bob Roux, said LN planned the final swing for the rocker — who has been a reliable live draw as both a solo performer as well as with Black Sabbath and his OzzFest festival — the same way it always does: in coordination with Osbourne (and his wife and manager Sharon Osbourne), as well as their management. They sat down together to decipher what Osbourne wanted to do for this tour, what markets were spotlights for him and how he wanted it to unfold over time.
“Ozzy has a lot of experience playing outdoors at major festivals and then during the advent of amphitheaters with the OzzFest tour — he does a magnificent job of mixing up venues on tours, sometimes playing festivals, sometimes amphitheaters, sometimes arenas and with this tour it’s a combination of many venues,” Roux said. The tour will hit such Live Nation-owned venues as Northwell Health at Jones Beach Theater in Wantagh, N.Y.; the PNC Bank Arts Center in Holmdel, N.J.; and Jiffy Lube Live in Bristol, Va., among others.
Sharon Osbourne said the long-range plan is to hit outdoor sheds and festivals, then hit arenas, especially the ones Ozzy has a particular fondness for. “When you’ve been doing this for over 50 years you know every building inside and out and backwards, and the arenas will definitely get a chance,” said Osbourne, who noted that her husband used a similar strategy during his final tour with Black Sabbath during 2016-17.
“Sometimes you only have so long to tour so you cut out certain markets, but with something like this we want to go everywhere, so we’ll probably play markets we haven’t in a long time,” Osbourne added.
Roux said it was important for the Osbournes that they hit certain markets that they had either enjoyed in the past or that they got a great response in, with festivals taking priority because they have to be booked so far in advance. Though he didn’t have historical data on merch per caps, Roux fully expected sales to be even higher on Osbourne’s final swing, with per show grosses running at more than $1 million a night and expectations that the first 21-show leg will play to up to 400,000.
“It’s the end of an era, and I wonder who will replace these people?” Osbourne said as she discussed her husband’s coming retirement from touring. “There’s nobody to replace these pioneers who’ve been doing this for over 50 years, so it’s kind of bittersweet, but I think Ozzy’s earned the right to do it.”