Rod Stewart, 81, needed oxygen on stage. Lionel Richie, 77, sang Dancing On The Ceiling sitting down – and Barry Manilow, 83, performs with part of his lung removed… It’s rock around the crocks!

As he shuffled around on stage, leaning first on his piano for support and then the tall plastic frame surrounding his drummer, Rod Stewart might have seemed a trifle optimistic when he sang: ‘Young hearts, be free tonight! Time is on your side.’

Sure enough, the 81-year-old legend doubled over towards the end of his performance of Young Turks – before a large oxygen tank was rushed on stage.

Gulping through his respirator, the Scotsman croaked to his cheering audience in Utah back in June: ‘I nearly f***ing fainted there … trying to do a … little step and the dance and everything … Would you mind if I sit down for this one?’

After that recent scare the star’s millions of fans might not have been surprised by his announcement this week that his next tour will be his last after having a coronary stent procedure in August. On Monday, Stewart revealed that after ‘much deliberation and sadness’, he will no longer play live after next spring’s 21-date European tour and a handful of US concerts – called, with some decisiveness, The Final Encore Tour.

‘Next year will be my last tour ever, ever, ever,’ Stewart insisted. But will it?

‘Heritage’ stars – as Stewart and his ageing fellow performers are known in their industry – have often made such definitive pronouncements only to announce another ‘final farewell’ tour soon afterwards.

But now many of the world’s most successful rock and pop performers are finding themselves having to take a seat at their own concerts as – heading into their seventies, eighties and even into their nineties – they discover that their spirit may be willing but the body often cannot keep up.

Earlier this month, 77-year-old Lionel Richie had his own senior moment when he asked for a chair before launching into his final number, All Night Long, during a sell-out performance in Missouri. Audience members cheered supportively as it became clear that – contrary to the lyrics of his most beloved dance anthem – the pop icon was not going to ‘party, karamu, fiesta, forever’.

But at least he made it through to the encore. In June, by contrast, he was only halfway through a set in Minnesota when – dressed in head-to-toe black leather – he had to sing Dancing On The Ceiling while sitting on the bottom step of his stage set.

As his saxophone player helpfully sat down next to him, Richie made ‘cut’ hand signals to his team off stage and told the audience he was feeling ‘dizzy’ and ‘strange’. He then managed to bash out Three Times A Lady on the piano, at which point he announced an intermission and left stage, never returning.

Sixty-one years after The Who snarled their defiant line, ‘I hope I die before I get old’ in their hit single My Generation, geriatric stars are still on the road and playing to packed-out houses.

Age, however, may finally be taking its toll and the casualty list is starting to lengthen.

When rock band Van Halen lead singer David Lee Roth, 71, abruptly curtailed his summer tour in July without explanation, some speculated that it was because he could no longer actually jump in the air as he famously does during his biggest hit, Jump.

Keith Richards, the 82-year-old Rolling Stone who has said he’d like to die on stage, cancelled the band’s planned 2026 tour in part because of his arthritis. Two months ago, Mike Love, the 85-year-old frontman of the Beach Boys, also sparked renewed health fears when he announced the band was shelving its remaining tour dates so he could take a ‘short break to recharge’. One US critic cruelly suggested the sole member of the iconic 1960s band’s original line-up head down to Florida to consult a charity called ‘Aging With Dignity’.

In sheer numbers, however, nobody quite matches the stamina of American singer and Grease star Frankie Valli, still touring at 92, even though critics complain he’s simply lip-syncing to a tape, something he has denied. Last month, Valli’s brother announced on the singer’s behalf he was finally retiring, prompting a terse rebuke from the star insisting that he wasn’t.

Some say that ageing female stars are more sensible and less egotistical, but soul legend Gladys Knight, 82, prompted health concerns in July after appearing confused and incoherent and, at times, wandering off stage at the Hollywood Bowl. She announced she was stepping back from touring next year after her son accused her current husband and manager of ignoring signs of her dementia.

At the time Knight refuted this, saying: ‘I’m sorry my health and performances have been misrepresented.’

The Beatles sang about being retired at 64 but that seems ridiculously premature nowadays. Five of the top ten international tours in 2024 were by artists over the age of 60: Bruce Springsteen, The Rolling Stones, U2, Madonna and heavy metal band Metallica.

According to Billboard Boxscore, which collates such information, British heavy metal band Iron Maiden – whose six members are all in their late 60s or early 70s – grossed more than $150million (£130million) from touring in 2025, as did the Eagles, who are mostly in their late 70s and whose singer, Don Henley, turns 80 next year.

Bruce Springsteen, 76, and Paul McCartney, 84, also earned more than $100million (£75million) from live performances in 2025. And neither of them were exactly working themselves to the bone to do it, playing just 24 and 22 gigs respectively. Even that notoriously cranky live performer, Bob Dylan, 85, is still ploughing on with his ‘Never Ending Tour’, playing to sell-out crowds.

And difficult as it is to credit it, Barry Manilow is now 83 and still getting knickers thrown at him on stage – despite having ‘retired’ as long ago as 2004 when he unveiled his One Night Live! One Last Time! Tour.

That’s nothing on Elton John, 79, who first announced he was packing up touring in 1977 and has regularly said the same since, his latest ‘farewell’ tour ending in 2023. Only this week, he was performing at the Apple Music Hall in London’s Battersea Power Station.

Late last year, Manilow announced he was having surgery for lung cancer but he was back on stage in June within six months of having a tumour cut out. ‘I’m going to do this tour if it kills me,’ he exclaimed. And do it, he added, whether or not, he could still sing with part of his lung removed. Music industry insiders say Manilow’s determination goes to the heart of why stars keep touring: they simply cannot imagine life without it. However, it’s not all to do with pampering egos. Touring is simply where the money is nowadays.

Internet streaming has crippled earnings from releasing new songs and albums. But stadium tours can gross hundreds of millions of pounds from ticket sales, while merchandising and VIP packages can push the figure considerably higher. Older acts have a significant advantage – their fans tend to be rich enough to pay hundreds of pounds, or more, for a ticket.

Advanced age can also give a star a marketing advantage as fans reach for their wallets with the awareness that it might be the last time they get to see their idols.

Meanwhile, life on the road has become much easier than it once was. Stars look after themselves, with the drink and drugs of the 1960s and 1970s replaced by fitness routines and personal trainers.

Some fans have been calling for their idols to retire gracefully, but others are clearly delighted for the show to go on.

At this rate, Sir Rod will hardly be the only one clutching an oxygen tank as stadiums rock to the sounds of years long gone by.