Rod Stewart has hinted that his days on the road may be nearing an end, saying a UK run next year and a date at The O2 could be his last touring push. Speaking on TalkSport, the 81-year-old said, “I’m touring the UK next year, doing The O2, and that’ll probably be it, I think.”
He added, “I’ll have to do something new, come on your show more often, maybe.” The remark lands after years of comments that suggested he was stepping away from the biggest kind of touring, but not from music itself.
That matters now because Stewart still has a number of US shows planned for this year, and he has not announced any dates for 2027. For fans trying to map out what comes after this stretch, the message is clear: the schedule is still active, but the runway may be getting shorter.
Stewart has been performing his One Last Time concert series since 2024, after telling followers that the end of large-scale world tours would come after those shows in Europe and North America. In an Instagram post last year, he wrote, “This will be the end of large-scale world tours for me, but I have no desire to retire.” He also said, “I love what I do, and I do what I love,” and joked that he was still fit enough to run 100 metres in 18 seconds at the “jolly old age of 79.”
That promise to step back from major global travel has not stopped him from continuing to perform. Stewart played the Legends spot at last year’s Glastonbury festival, a reminder that he remains a fixture on big stages even as he talks more openly about scaling back. He has also said he could move toward smaller-venue work, including a Great American Songbook and Swing Fever tour the year after next, though he has left that plan open-ended.
The tension in Stewart’s comments is not whether he is still working. It is whether “probably” really means the end. He has not set out any 2027 dates, but he has also been explicit that retirement is not the goal. In the same 2024 Instagram post, he said he wanted to keep making music and described a possible shift to more intimate shows rather than a full stop.
He has been just as direct about the creative side. In an interview with AARP The Magazine, Stewart said there is “so much more music” he wants to create and said he has a covers album, a country album and a Faces album in the works. He said he enjoys concerts more now than when he was younger, adding that when he feels sick enough to cancel a show, he often bounces back within days. “Maybe I’ve come full circle to appreciate how lucky I’ve been,” he said.
For now, the practical answer is that Stewart is not done performing, but he may be nearing the end of the road work that has defined much of his career. The bigger question is not whether he will keep making music. It is how often fans will still get to see him do it from a stage the size of The O2.
