AGE SHALL NOT WEARY THEM (2024): Why are the old folk still touring?

When British heavy metal legends Iron Maiden played Auckland's Spark Arena on September 16, its two founding members -- bassist Steve Harris and guitarist Dave Murray – were 68 and 67 respectively.

Singer Bruce Dickinson was 66, which means he's been screaming “your soul's gonna burn in the lake of fire” (Can I Play With Madness) for more than three decades.

And on their way in November are the punk-era Buzzcocks (one original member, 69-year old Steve Diggle) with other greybeards from that era, Modern English.

Even those mouthy Mancunians, Noel and Liam Gallagher of Oasis, are getting up there: Noel will be 58 when – and perhaps if – the re-formed band start touring next year; younger brother Liam will only be 52 but he's already passed through that rite of passage for the elderly: the hip operation.

Advanced in years they may be, but these musicians are among many touring artists whose defy the attritions of age. And they're still younger than many.

Jazz legend Herbie Hancock – who arrives in New Zealand in October – will be 84, three years older than Joe Biden.

In May Bob Dylan turned 83. Perhaps he got a call from 91-year old well-wisher Willie Nelson reminding him of their upcoming tour together.

Paul McCartney – 82 in June -- might also have sent best wishes, he's heading out again after a successful 2023 Got Back tour.

Robert Plant had a day off mid-tour in America for his 76^th birthday in August but was back out the next morning with Alison Krauss and joining Dylan, Nelson and 72-year old John Mellencamp on the Outlaw Festival Tour.

Also on that endless highway through the US and Europe are John Fogerty (79), Bonnie Raitt (74), 71-year old Lucinda Williams coming back after a stroke in 2020 and Bruce Springsteen (74, out with the band until November)

The 78-year old Neil Young is trotting around the US and Canada.

The Stones have just finished a tour: Mick Jagger -- 81 just after their last show – and Keith Richards, 80.

In this country recently we've seen Jackson Browne (75), Graham Nash (82) and James Taylor (76) under the spotlight. The still sprightly Neil Finn (66) takes another line-up of Crowded House – which includes his two sons – out in support of their new album Gravity Stairs. Bassist Nick Seymour is 65, keyboard player Mitchell Froom turns 71 in late June.

So what's the call of the road for people of this vintage?

Jazzman Hancock says it's a privilege to play music he has written and reinvent it every night for people” There's nothing like it.”

So the answer is perhaps simple: it's what they do, so why stop? Maybe it's a variation on the philosophical question: “If a tree falls in a forest and no one is there to hear it . . .”
If your purpose in life is to entertain people, do you exist in the absence of an audience?

In 2006 Keith Richards told me, “in a way the band is an engine and the audience is the fuel. You exchange each others' energy.

“There's a special thing  . . .

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To read the rest of this extensive interview go the Listener online here