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Peter Kraus has already gone on seven farewell tours. Now the 87-year-old pop icon is returning to the stage - together with his son Mike.
Image: Tom Weller/dpa
Pop star Peter Kraus has once again announced his last tour - and is in the best of company. Time and again, stars officially bid farewell to the stage, only to return shortly afterwards. Farewell tour without end: what's behind this phenomenon?
"A comeback is the return of a person or group in public life, a style or a fashion to the center of media interest."
Peter Kraus turned 87 on March 18. The German singer, who has lived in Ticino for many years, actually wanted his stage career to be over by this point.
Wanted to.
Now the man who once made a name for himself with an Elvis Presley-style hip swing is being drawn back onto the stage, i.e. into the limelight.
After no fewer than seven announced farewell tours, Kraus will be going on tour again from May 2027. "Yes, it's my eighth farewell tour," Kraus reveals in an interview with Der Spiegel - and explains how it came about:
"The first three farewell tours were a PR stunt, just like other artists come up with an illness to boost their advance sales."
He continues: "From the fourth tour onwards, I took it more seriously. It was the time when I bought a vineyard in southern Styria to become a hobby winemaker. Now I'm going on tour with my son Mike for the first time."
Of course, he couldn't say no.
Now then: Peter Kraus is not an isolated case - farewell tours without end are a widespread phenomenon in the music industry.
Back in 1984, the British band Status Quo conjured up the "End of the Road", only to rock on and rock on two years later and ... still doing it today.
Mötley Crüe, the Scorpions, Kiss, Deep Purple, Judas Priest, the late Ozzy Osbourne: the stages of the world are well filled with musicians who wanted to enjoy their retirement long ago - and then couldn't stop after all.
Like Howard Carpendale, who wanted to call it a day in 2003 with "Das Finale" - and will be celebrating his 60th anniversary on stage with a tour next summer, now 80 years old.
And then?
The musicians - mostly men who talk about saying goodbye and yet celebrate one comeback after another - suddenly stand in front of sold-out halls again, fill stadiums, bathe in the applause of the fans and realize:
Damn, that feels good.
Fame is addictive. And who wants to give it up voluntarily? So suddenly you're back on great terms with your old bandmates, who you used to only gossip about - and bang: the next album is already being planned - and the next farewell tour right behind it.
It's no wonder that "last tour" or "big farewell tour" makes fans smile knowingly rather than tearfully.
Farewell tours are almost always box office hits. What fan doesn't want to see their favorite band live one last time? And it's also clear: without an announced farewell tour, significantly fewer tickets would certainly have been sold.
"We're dealing here with a kind of self-fulfilling prophecy familiar from Shakespeare's Macbeth," the German music magazine "The Circle" said back in 2019, getting to the bottom of the phenomenon.
In an interview with t-online, Peter Kraus steadfastly claimed that there were no strategic considerations behind the father-son tour. "An eighth farewell tour is not happening because I wanted to expand it in a business-like way."
Oh, that's right, he wanted to end his career as a singer long ago. But this time the impetus came from his son.
"Mike has produced a very good album, which he wrote himself, and something has to happen with it. You can't make money with the record business alone, only with a tour."
He has not been driven by ambition in the classic sense for a long time, Peter Kraus claims on t-online: "I am not a person who is still striving for success in the world of pop music".
After seven farewell tours, Peter Krause now wants to go on tour again in 2027 - together with his son Mike Kraus.
Picture: IMAGO/Horst Galuschka
He continues: "I haven't needed that for decades. But doing something extraordinary with my son - that's fun for me. We have a very close relationship and talk on the phone almost every day."
Looking back, Kraus is satisfied with his career. The decisive factor for him was consistency. "Staying in the business consistently, being popular and having fans - what more could you want?"
Momoll, Peter Kraus wants even more, as he revealed to Der Spiegel: "My very ambitious doctor has said that I absolutely have to give a concert on my 90th birthday. My management has already booked the Wiener Stadthalle for March 18, 2029."
