Rod Stewart Says 2027 UK Tour Will ‘Probably’ Be His Last on the Road

The 81-year-old made the comments during a TalkSport radio interview on May 18th, with no official dates yet announced.

Rod Stewart has signaled that his planned 2027 UK tour, which will include a show at The O2 in London, will likely mark the end of his time on the road. The 81-year-old made the remarks during a May 18th radio interview on TalkSport, saying of the upcoming run, ‘that'll probably be it, I think.' Stewart has been performing on his ‘One Last Time' farewell tour since 2024 and still has around 40 shows scheduled for this year alone.

Stewart Signals the End After More Than 60 Years Touring

Speaking on TalkSport on May 18th, Stewart outlined a busy schedule that includes a private event in Monte Carlo, a return to Las Vegas for a residency, and roughly 40 shows across the year. ‘I shoot off to Vegas for seven concerts there, and then about another ten,' he said. ‘I've got about 40 odd shows this year. That's not really enough.'

Looking further ahead, he pointed to the 2027 UK run as a likely endpoint. ‘Then I'm touring the UK next year, doing The O2, and that'll probably be it, I think,' Stewart said. ‘I'll have to do something new, come on your show more often, maybe.' No official dates for the 2027 UK tour have been announced at this stage.

Stewart turned 81 in January and has been performing consistently for over 60 years, including his years with the Jeff Beck Group and the Faces. His ‘One Last Time' farewell tour launched in 2024 and has kept him active across arenas and festival stages on both sides of the Atlantic.

A Complicated Relationship With Retirement

This is not the first time Stewart has gestured toward winding down. In 2024, he said his current run would be ‘the end of large-scale world tours for me, but I have no desire to retire.' At the time, he also floated a different kind of future: ‘I'd like to move onto a Great American Songbook, Swing Fever tour the year after next, smaller venues and more intimacy.' He then added, ‘But then again, I may not.'

That same year, Stewart reflected on his age with characteristic candor. ‘I'm aware my days are numbered but I've got no fear,' he said. ‘We have all got to pass on at some point, so we are all in the same basket. I am going to be enjoying myself for these last few years as much as I can. I say few, probably another 15. I can do that easy mate, easy.'

Despite the hedging, his enthusiasm for live performance remains undiminished. On TalkSport he described the feeling of playing to a crowd in vivid terms: ‘There's nothing like it, there's no drink, alcohol, or drug that'll give you that buzz. To see all those smiling faces out there, seeing them all happy, it's just God's gift. It's wonderful.'

Glastonbury 2025 and the Faces Reunion

Stewart's most recent major UK appearance came at Glastonbury 2025, where he took the coveted legends slot on the Pyramid Stage on Sunday afternoon. He was joined onstage by Ronnie Wood, Mick Hucknall, and Lulu. NME, which awarded the set four stars, noted that ‘the man's voice is on point and he knows how to charm while giving you bang for your buck,' though it observed the crowd was not quite as raucous as legends slots sometimes produce.

The Wood reunion raised hopes for a long-promised new Faces album, but Wood subsequently said progress had stalled because it was hard to make their ‘times tally.' Stewart has not carried out a full UK arena tour since 2022, though he did play a series of outdoor shows in 2023 before the Glastonbury appearance.

What we know

• Rod Stewart said on TalkSport on May 18th that his 2027 UK tour, including a date at The O2, will ‘probably be it' for him on the road.
• Stewart has approximately 40 shows scheduled for 2025, including a private event in Monte Carlo and a Las Vegas residency.
• No official dates for the 2027 UK tour have been announced.
• Stewart has been performing on his ‘One Last Time' farewell tour since 2024.
• Stewart played the legends slot on the Pyramid Stage at Glastonbury 2025, joined by Ronnie Wood, Mick Hucknall, and Lulu.
• In 2024, Stewart said his current run would be ‘the end of large-scale world tours' for him but that he had ‘no desire to retire.'

The take

Rod Stewart's career arc makes the 2027 UK tour announcement both credible and, given his track record, worth treating with a degree of caution. He has been one of rock's most durable live performers, sustaining arena-level audiences well into his eighties in a way few of his contemporaries have managed. The ‘One Last Time' framing fits a well-worn template in classic rock, where farewell tours have a habit of extending far beyond their original scope. Elton John's Farewell Yellow Brick Road tour ran for five years before its conclusion in 2023, and even Stewart himself has previously walked back statements about scaling down, floating the idea of a more intimate Great American Songbook tour before leaving the door open to changing his mind entirely. What makes this particular statement slightly more concrete is the specificity: he named The O2 and a year. That said, the qualifier ‘probably' is doing real work in that sentence. For a performer who has described live performance as ‘God's gift' and who still has roughly 40 shows on the books for 2025, a clean exit in 2027 would require a discipline that the history of classic rock retirements suggests is genuinely rare. Fans would be wise to treat the 2027 UK dates as a must-see occasion while remaining open to a sequel.

Why it matters

For classic rock audiences, Stewart represents a direct line back to the late 1960s British rock scene through the Jeff Beck Group and the Faces, and his solo catalog spans more than five decades of hits. A final UK arena run would close a chapter in British rock history. The O2 date in particular carries weight: it is one of the world's highest-profile indoor venues, and a farewell show there would land as a genuine cultural moment for a generation of fans who have followed Stewart across multiple eras of his career.

What's next

Stewart has around 40 shows remaining in 2025, including a private event in Monte Carlo and a Las Vegas residency. A 2027 UK tour including The O2 has been referenced but not officially announced. Fans should watch for a formal announcement of dates and venues for that run.

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