Tony Bennett retires from performing
The legendary singer performed two concerts with Lady Gaga last week in celebration of his 95th birthday, but canceled his remaining 2021 dates
Music News Tony Bennett
Last week, iconic crooner Tony Bennett performed with Lady Gaga in two sold-out shows at Radio City Music Hall in New York City to celebrate his 95th birthday. Now his son Danny Bennett says those two shows will be Bennett’s last, on “doctor’s orders.” Two sold out shows with Gaga in his home city? Definitely not a bad way to wrap up a lengthy and triumphant career in music.
“There won’t be any additional concerts,” Danny Bennett told Variety. “This was a hard decision for us to make, as he is a capable performer. This is, however, doctors’ orders. His continued health is the most important part of this, and when we heard the doctors—when Tony’s wife, Susan heard them—she said, ‘Absolutely not.’
“He’ll be doing other things, but not those upcoming shows. It’s not the singing aspect but, rather, the traveling. Look, he gets tired,” Danny Bennett continues. “The decision is being made that doing concerts now is just too much for him. We don’t want him to fall on stage, for instance—something as simple as that.”
The man deserves some rest. His forthcoming Cheek To Cheek follow-up with Lady Gaga, a Cole Porter tribute titled Love For Sale, will be his last album. Earlier this year, the singer’s family revealed that the elder Bennett was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease in 2016.
“They kept telling me that we lied, that there was no way Tony had Alzheimer’s,” Danny Bennett said. “I assured everyone that he does. … Yes, here he was, at 95, and still singing like this: Strong, emotive. But still, it is a complex question: how can he do this?
“My answer is that this is where he has lived his whole life and where he is most happy—on the stage, making music. Dealing as we have with Alzheimer’s for the last four-five years, it’s cognitive. He has short-term memory loss. That, however, does not mean that he doesn’t still have all this stored up inside of him. He doesn’t use a Teleprompter. He never misses a line. He hits that stage, and goes. Tony may not remember every part of doing that show. But, when he stepped to the side of the stage, the first thing he told me was: ‘I love being a singer.’”
Here come the waterworks. Bennett and Gaga’s Love For Sale is scheduled for release on October 1.
41 Comments
Respect to Tony for doing this as long as he has and with Alzheimer’s the past few years.
Same here.Just like with Glen Campbell and Bobby Womack. And also with family members.Witnessing first hand what a family goes through with Alzheimer’s, I can understand what Tony’s family is going through. To his family and anyone here who’s currently dealing with this monster, you have my support.
This is the right decision. If he keeps touring with Alzheimer’s, he’s likely to forget to pack vital organs when he leaves a city.
Those Hammonds are expensive!
He can ask Leslie to remind him.
“I left my pancreaaaas, in Scraaaanton…”
Crap, I did want to see him at Foxwoods knowing it might be my only chance, but it’s a miracle he was able to perform for this long with Alzheimers, plus it’s safer for him not to be doing so with Covid.
The Gaga album is great, and I’m looking forward to the new one, but his album of Gershwin songs with Diana Krall is simply one of the best records he’s ever made. Can’t recommend it highly enough.
His Unplugged album was also really good.
If you want some fun, go over to Breitbart’s article about this to watch mostly old racist people wring their hands about whether they can be sad he’s retiring given how much of a huge “lib****” he is, argue about artist vs work, and the few who’re sad to have discovered only today that Tony’s had compassion for his fellow human beings this whole time.
Jesus, I didn’t think even they could hate Tony Bennett.
Nazis hate everything. It’s their raisons d’exister.I got fancy for a minute. Thank you.
They might as well be retirees in the Land of Mordor now, with that truly well-gated community’s slogan “What do we NOT hate?”
>go over to Breitbart’s article about thisNo thanks.
He gave us more than we deserved. You earned it TB. Good luck on the next journey.
I had no idea he was still performing. Props to him for keeping it up for so long, even through his illness. I hope he enjoys his retirement, however long it lasts.
But he’ll still coach at UVA, right? At least part-time?
I seriously hope family members and others haven’t pushed him to perform this long. It’s been presented as a thing that gives him purpose, focus, and happiness, and it’s absolutely astonishing he can still do it not just at 95, but at 95 several years into Alzheimer’s. I hope it’s genuinely made him happy. From what I understand Bennett is a great guy (orders of magnitude better on a personal level than a certain other legendary Italian-American crooner). He deserves a dignified retirement.
I cringe to think of what culture wars Sinatra would insert himself in.
It’s interesting that 60 years ago Sinatra and Bennett were major fundraisers for MLK and helped stave off bankruptcy for tthe SCLC when they were threatened by massive lawsuits. The 1961 concert at Carnegie Hall described here is one example, but they both did a lot more:
https://artsandculture.google.com/exhibit/the-civil-rights-movement-at-carnegie-hall-carnegie-hall/5gIyBhNU52gZLgLater Sinatra ended up pals with Nancy Reagan, but Bennett stayed committed to civil rights.
Yeah, Sinatra/Bennett were huge in integrating music halls too.A ton of hollywood types embraced the Reagans despite their awfulness, including James Brown and even Muhammad Ali. I think a ton of things were just not super visible back then or were worse in hindsight. Sinatra also got into it with Sinead O’Connor, threatening violence on her for her words against the pope…which turned out to be correct regarding sexual abuse.
Yeah, I don’t know if it was true or not, but word has it that Sinatra, good pals with JFK before the election, was snubbed by him once JFK became president. Actually that’s pretty well documented – but was it the reason Sinatra became such an arch-conservative? I mean, was Sinatra that small minded and petty? (My opinion – probably. His mafioso-like tantrums and vendettas remind me of none other than Donald Trump’s, and if Sinatra were miraculously around today he probably would have been one of Trump’s many attorneys general….)
“I mean, was Sinatra that small minded and petty?”Most definitely, but he personally disliked Trump so maybe he wouldn’t have gone that far.
he personally disliked Trump so maybe he wouldn’t have gone that far. Good to know, actually. I like Sinatra’s singing.
Frank Sinatra Sings for Only the Lonely is a true work of art I’d recommend to anyone. As for him being an asshole, it’s been commented he had some bipolar traits and I always got the impression that living in a bubble of fame and fortune exacerbated that. When everything about you is validated but you also can’t really trust anyone, it’s hard to develop effective coping skills, no matter how much swagger you front with.
Alex Gibney did a two-part Sinatra documentary called Sinatra: All or Nothing at All, which I think is currently available on Netflix. I think it gives a pretty good overview of the man, warts and all (and there were plenty of warts).
I’ve heard similar stories re: Sinatra i.e. he felt like JFK “owed” him and didn’t pay proper fealty. Pop culture’s shift in direction away from his schtick also personally offended him and further pushed him towards the right end of the spectrum.
Sinatra was preparing to have JFK stay at his home early in Kennedy’s presidency. He went way out of his way to make it a special event, including having a helicopter landing pad built so JFK could arrive that way! But Kennedy’s people (pushed by his dad) decided it wouldn’t be wise to stay with Sinatra because his ties to various gangsters were coming to light again, and Bobby Kennedy was famously a crusader against the mob. So JFK backed out at the last minute and stayed at Bing Crosby’s house. Sinatra didn’t take well to anybody doing anything at all that wasn’t to his liking – he was capable of dumping lifelong friends if they stood up to him – and he was totally livid. He actually took a sledgehammer to the helicopter pad, swearing up-and-down about that no-good Irish son-of-a-bitch. So that was it for Sinatra and JFK.
Being opposed to segregation was an easy decision for a lot of people back then, especially the ones who grew up outside the south. The injustice was just too big to ignore. But that doesn’t mean they were in favor of attempting to achieve real social justice. They probably figured as long as everyone’s equal in the eyes of the law, then racism is solved. In fact, that seems to be the default position of about 30% of America today. Bennett was an exception, of course. He could see that just because integration was the law of the land didn’t necessarily mean the work was done. And good for him.
It was Frank’s world; Tony Bennett was just living in it.
It WAS Frank’s world, but Tony is STILL living in it.
You son of a bitch!
Thank you! Thank you very much!**I love F.S., the singer, and don’t think badly at all of F.S., the actor.
I agree about the singing and the acting. It’s just that F.S. the person, well…….let’s just appreciate the art he created.
As a fan of Sinatra – he was 100% against racial injustice on every level. Being petty (which he could be) does not mean his stance against racism was somehow fake. He was against that until the end. His turn to conservatism (which mirrored a lot of the county) was complex and had a lot to do with the failures he was on the left, the rise of the counter-culture and yes being snubbed by JFK for Crosby.
I seriously hope family members and others haven’t pushed him to perform this long.I doubt it. Once upon a time I was acquainted with some of his family members, and they absolutely love him. The guy’s life is singing and painting. Hopefully he’ll be able to get some joy from the latter for a little while longer.
That’s good to hear. You never know. Watching the online COVID-era performances, you do get the impression he’s having fun and I can definitely see how performing would be therapeutic. There’s just a difference between intimate online things and playing Radio City, so one wonders. What a run though.
George Burns, when asked why he kept performing at the age of 96: “I have to support my parents.”
I was lucky enough to get a ticket to their first concert at Radio City last week and it was an incredible evening. I am a massive fan of both Gaga and Tony Bennett, so seeing them together as my first concert post-lockdown made for a very emotional experience. She had never sounded better and performed the standards like she’d been doing it for decades. He sounded remarkable for someone of his age and his current health. Like his son said in the article he never forgot a single lyric, but you could tell he got tired near the end. Regardless he was beaming the entire time blowing kisses to the audience and band and thanking everyone in attendance for being there and being “fabulous.” They did a few duets near the end and you could really tell there was a lot of love between them. Truly an honor to get to see his second to last performance. It was announced before the show began that it was being recorded for future broadcast, though no other details were provided.Only downside of the night? The huge amount of anti-vaxx protesters outside of the venue. Vaccinations were mandated for everyone in attendance with no exceptions (not even a recent negative test) and there was a huge crowd of lunatics claiming we were living under everything from Nazi control, apartheid, and segregation. One woman kept asking if we wanted to be tested to see if we had been magnetized. It was utterly surreal and, considering Bennett helped liberate a Nazi concentration camp in WW2, deeply insulting.
You know he’s just going to pull an LCD Soundsystem and come out of retirement in 10 years.
My mom saw Tony Bennett sing in her high school gymnasium in Cleveland in 1951. That’s a career.