For Aging Rock Stars, 90 Is the New 30!

How is this man still alive? Photo by Kevin Winter/Getty Images via 24/7 Wall Street

A roll call of 40 aging rock stars who are over 80 or about to be.

Things they do look awful c-c-cold,
Hope I die before I get old.

–The Who, “My Generation”

Have Guitar, Will Travel

The 2025 rock ‘n’ roll tour schedule is taking shape, and chances are your favorite back-in-the-day rock star is coming to a venue near you. Eagles (Don Henley, age 77) will continue a Las Vegas residency through the spring. Eric Clapton (age 79) has booked 14 concerts through the fall. Rod Stewart (age 80) will appear in 49 concerts through August. Bruce Springsteen (age 75) has lined up 16 concerts through July. ZZ Top (Billy Gibbons, age 75) will perform 53 concerts through the fall.

Since none of these gentlemen seem hard-pressed for money, average folks might wonder why they go through the trouble. Constant traveling is hard work. Playing an instrument night after night at an advanced age can lead to carpal tunnel syndrome or worse.

Perhaps there is a breed of rock musicians who cannot afford to slow down. They might be paying hefty bills due to multiple ex-spouses and kids. They might be absorbing spiraling health care costs. But constant touring is a double-edged sword: A fractured larynx and other vocal cord problems caused “Dream On” singer Steven Tyler (age 76) to retire from Aerosmith last summer. Bruce Springsteen’s peptic ulcer denied him months of tour dates in 2023.

Streaming for Half-Pennies

In the days of physical music sales, aging rock stars could count on compilation albums (like greatest hits) to burnish their legacies. These days, streaming platforms like Spotify are where rock musicians earn a living on their recorded music.

Take rocker Steve Miller (age 81), whose band performed monster hits like “Fly Like an Eagle,” “The Joker,” and Abracadabra.” On the downside of their peak performing years, the Steve Miller Band released 11 compilation albums, of which six were certified Gold and one, “Greatest Hits 1974-78” went 15x Platinum (15 million albums sold). Do the math.

Steve Miller at his induction ceremony to the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 2016. Source: Rock ‘n’ Roll Hall of Fame

Steve Miller’s bountiful songbook has yielded 1.8 billion streams on Spotify, a staggering amount. But applying Spotify’s multiplier of $0.00318 per stream, Miller’s all-time gross revenue from streaming is $5.8 million, a nice piece of change but a fraction of his physical record sales.

Perhaps that’s a reason why Miller, 81, ventures out on tour year after year, even if it’s third or fourth billing on the oldies circuit. Perhaps Miller is a student of supply and demand: “There are always naysayers who think these legacy acts, whose best work and performance ability are far behind them, should give it up,” says pop culture expert Rob Weiner of Texas Tech. “But people keep going to see these acts.”

Slings and Arrows of Outrageous Fortune

Bruce Springsteen and his E Street Band have been on tour since the ’70s. David Remnick, the editor of The New Yorker, profiled the band’s propensity for live performance in his 2023 book, Holding the Note. Remnick tallied the various maladies that the E Streeters have suffered throughout the years:

The run of tragedy, debility, and erosion has seemed relentless…[guitarist] Nils Lofgren has had both hips replaced…[drummer] Max Weinberg has endured open-heart surgery, two failed back operations, prostate cancer treatment, and seven hand operations. Lofgren has compared the backstage area to ‘a MASH unit’ with ice packs, heating pads, Bengay tubes, and masseuses on call. More alarmingly, Jon Landau, Springsteen’s manager and closest friend, was recovering from brain surgery.

Bruce has aged well. source: somuchgreatmusic.com

Remnick goes on to describe the trappings of luxury that aging rock stars like Springsteen can afford:

The upper echelon of the pop music touring business is, like Silicon Valley, dominated by a small number of enterprises. The drop-off in scale from there is precipitous…[Springsteen’s] tour set off on a three-month run of stadium performances in Europe. In Barcelona, Springsteen was staying in a suite, with a private deck and a Jacuzzi, at the Florida, a hillside hotel overlooking the city; the band and crew stayed at the Hotel Arts, a five-star hotel on the beach. A caravan of black Mercedes vans whisked the musicians (some band members have their own traveling assistants) to the Olympic Stadium in the afternoon for a sound check.

Roll Call

These three gentlemen are 83 years old. Source: ontherecord.com

Pete Townshend’s ambition in “My Generation” is not being heeded, and certainly not by him. Here is a list of 40 rock musicians who are 80 years or older, or will turn 80 during this calendar year:

Willie Nelson, 91
Frankie Valli, 90
Herb Alpert, 89
Buddy Guy, 88
Bill Wyman, 88
Gene Chandler, 87
Tom Paxton, 87
Paul Stookey, 87
Grace Slick, 86
Ringo Starr, 84
Bob Dylan, 83
George Clinton, 83
Chubby Checker, 83
Paul Simon, 83
John Cale, 83
Carole King, 83
|Graham Nash, 83
Art Garfunkel, 83
Paul McCartney, 82
Brian Wilson, 82
Mick Jagger, 81
Roger Waters, 81
Steve Miller, 81
Randy Newman, 81
Keith Richards, 81
Jimmy Page, 81
Roger Daltrey, 81
Sly Stone, 81
Gladys Knight, 80
Boz Scaggs, 80
Stephen Stills, 80
Rod Stewart, 80
Eric Clapton, 79
Bob Seger, 79
John Fogerty, 79
Debbie Harry, 79
Van Morrison, 79
Bryan Ferry, 79
Neil Young, 79
Pete Townshend, 79