Cher finds it “embarrassing” to reflect on her previous farewell concerts after repeatedly changing her mind about performing again.
The pop icon famously revealed plans to hang up her concert microphone after her Living Proof: The Farewell Tour shows, which ran from 2002 to 2005, but she ended up returning to the stage again in 2014 for the Dressed to Kill trek, and is now preparing to hit the road for the latest leg of her Here We Go Again Tour.
Cher, 72, insists she genuinely didn’t think she would be able to keep drawing big crowds after her previous goodbye gigs, and even now, after hit Las Vegas residencies and a new Broadway musical about her life, she worries about being an ageing star in the music industry.
“It’s so embarrassing because I keep having these farewell tours because I honest to God think I am never coming back,” she said on U.S. breakfast show Today.
“Like, I’m 100 years old, whos going to come and see me? My mum’s 93 and my mum keeps going, ‘Cher, age is just a number. If you don’t bother it, it won’t bother you.’ And I keep going, ‘Mum, you’re crazy.'”
However, the Believe singer admits the adrenaline she feels stepping out in front of fans each night during her tour reminds her exactly why she keeps returning to the stage.
“I know when I walk onstage, I am connected to every single person there and (am) there to make people forget if they’re unhappy, if they’ve lost their job, if they didn’t make their car payment; I’m there to make people happy for those two hours,” she smiled. “That’s my job, and that’s what I get back.”
Cher’s Here We Go Again Tour resumes in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania on Thursday (18Apr19).