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Elton John farewell tour comes to DC in September

By Abigail Constantino

WASHINGTON — Follow the yellow brick road to Capital One Arena for music legend Elton John’s farewell tour.

Tickets for the Sept. 21 and 22 shows in D.C. go on sale to the general public on Friday, Feb. 2 at 10 a.m. American Express card members and Ticketmaster verified fans can purchased tickets earlier.

John announced that the tour — dubbed “Farewell Yellow Brick Road” — will be his final. The 70-year-old singer, pianist and composer said he wanted to spend time with his family. His children will be 10 and 8 when he stops in 2021, and John said he hoped he might be able to take them to soccer practice.

“My priorities now are my children and my husband and my family,” he said. “This is the end.”

The North American leg of the tour includes venues in Philadelphia, New York, Connecticut, Canada, Massachusetts, Michigan, Kentucky, Tennessee, Illinois, Missouri, Ohio, Florida, Georgia, Alabama, Louisiana, Texas, Idaho, California, Colorado, Oklahoma, Nebraska, Wisconsin, Minnesota, North Carolina and South Carolina.

Tickets can be purchased on John’s website.

Here is video highlight of his career.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

David Clayton-Thomas, powerhouse lead singer of Blood, Sweat & Tears, dies at 84

By The Associated Press
NEW YORK (AP) — David Clayton-Thomas, the lead singer of Blood, Sweat & Tears, whose husky, high-strung tenor on “Spinning Wheel,” “And When I Die” and other hits helped make the so-called brass rock band among the most popular acts of the late 1960s, has died at age 84. Spokesperson Eric Alper said that Clayton-Thomas died “peacefully” Wednesday at St. Michael’s Hospital in Toronto. Alper did not cite a specific cause. Clayton-Thomas was a onetime street fighter and petty thief from Canada who briefly became a rock superstar, the front man of a nine-member group that sold millions of records and won two Grammys for “Blood, Sweat & Tears,” which beat out the Beatles' “Abbey Road” for best album of 1969. Calling out amid a jazzy parade of horns, keyboards and percussion, Clayton-Thomas’ urgent shout was a signature voice of the era, preaching love on the Motown cover “You’ve Made Me So Very Happy,” a lasting legacy on Laura Nyro’s “And When I Die” and a cool head on his own “Spinning Wheel.” Meanwhile, Blood, Sweat & Tears helped inspire a wave of horn-led bands, among them Chicago, the Electric Flag and Ten Wheel Drive. “A lot of the guys (in Blood, Sweat & Tears) would play a Broadway show matinee, then go up to Harlem and play Latin music or R&B and funk at night, or come down to the Village and play pure jazz the next night,” Clayton-Thomas told bestclassicbands.com in 2023. “I was just a blues player: give me three chords and I’ve got a song.”
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