The Wall Street Journal - 07.10.2019

A14| Monday, October 7, 2019 **** THE WALL STREET JOURNAL.

Tacoma, Wash.
WEARING A JEWELEDjacket,
Elton John sat down at a piano at
the Tacoma Dome and pounded
out the opening chords of “Bennie
and the Jets.” With him onstage
that September night were guitar-
ist Davey Johnstone and drummer
Nigel Olsson, two of the musicians
who recorded the song with Mr.
John for the 1973 double LP
“Goodbye Yellow Brick Road.”
“Welcome to the ‘Farewell Yel-
low Brick Road tour,’ ” Mr. John
proclaimed before segueing into “I
Guess That’s Why They Call It the
Blues.” After a five-decade touring
career, the 72-year-old performer
is saying farewell to the road. Few
artists have closed the book on a
phase of their career with as much
fanfare. A memoir, “Me,” will be
published Oct. 15 and a biopic,
“Rocketman,” was released this
year. Mr. John is in the middle of
an international farewell tour that
spans more than 300 dates over
three years.
He has plenty of company on
the so-long circuit. Bob Seger,
KISS and Slayer are also on fare-
well tours, while others such as
Paul Simon waved goodbye in

2018. The definition of “farewell,”
      however, has become fluid, often
      considered more a marketing tool
      than a stone tablet.
      Marquees around the world are
      illuminated with the names of art-
      ists who have returned from long
      goodbyes. Cher, Judas Priest, the
      Who and Ozzy Osbourne are
      among the many who have re-
      turned to the road after pur-
      ported farewell tours. And the
      ‘farewell’ era is proving a lucra-
      tive career phase for some acts.
      According to Pollstar, in 2013
      when on a regular concert tour,
      Mötley Crüe averaged $361,765 a
      night, with 4,368 tickets sold. In
      2014, on the rock band’s farewell

tour, it averaged $647,059 and

11,627 tickets sold a night.

Scott Rodger, manager of musi-

cians like Paul McCartney, says he

believes ticket sales inspire many

such tours. “It’s definitely a mar-

keting thing,” Mr. Rodger says. “As

soon as you say it’s farewell, guar-

anteed you’re selling out.” Mr.

Rodger says Mr. McCartney will

never mount a farewell tour. “He’s

just gonna do what he does,” he

says, “and when he stops he’s

gonna stop.”

Fred Goodman, author of “The

Mansion on the Hill,” a book that

examines the music industry, says

the concert business “needs to be

an event business.” That event

used to be an album release, he

says, but since new albums have

become less important, particu-

larly for legacy acts, artists are

looking for different ways to en-

tice audiences to shows. That

might mean playing a classic al-

bum in its entirety or alternating

between indoor and outdoor ven-

ues. Madonna is playing smaller

rooms with higher ticket prices.

“The farewell tours, to me, are

just sort of one piece of this,” Mr.

Goodman says. “It’s a way to sort

of brand it.”

In a news release announcing

the tour, Mr. John says, “After the

tour finishes, I’m very much look-

ing forward to closing off that

chapter of my life by saying fare-

well to life on the road.” His publi-

cist declined to make Mr. John

available for an interview and

wouldn’t comment on whether he

is saying farewell forever to tour-

ing or concerts. In the same re-

lease, Jay Marciano, chairman and

CEO of the tour’s promoter, AEG

Presents, says: “Elton’s ‘Farewell

Yellow Brick Road’ concerts will

be the ultimate and final opportu-

nity for his millions of fans

FROM TOP: DAVID CLIFFORD FOR THE WALL STREET JOURNAL (2); LIBBY SAUTER

Sunny Stroeer runs, above, and

climbs, below in Lime Park, Colo., to

prepare for ultradistance trail races.

LIFE & ARTS

Colorado’s Sawatch Range.

She’s training for speedy sum-

mits of Denali in Alaska and Island

Peak in Nepal and hopes to com-

plete the Ultra Gobi, a nearly 250-

mile, self-supported race in China

next year that must be finished in

under 149 hours. These days she

and her husband make money lead-

ing mountain expeditions and move

their van between Colorado, Utah

and California so she can train. She

hopes to land sponsorships that

will allow her to continue her

mountain pursuits.

The Workout

When Ms. Stroeer lived in Hous-

ton, she would run 3 to 5 miles on

the road during the week and do

longer runs on weekends. To pre-

pare for a high-altitude race, she

would use a hyperbaric chamber

and do treadmill and strength

workouts at a simulated 12,

feet to 17,000 feet up to five hours

a week.

Now her workouts focus on

three things: training at altitude,

maximizing time on her feet and

increasing the vertical distance

she covers each week. If she has a

record pursuit at 14,000 feet or

says.“Inowtrytoget

10 to 12 and nap when

I’m in peak training.”

The Diet

In the run-up to a

big-mountain mission,

Ms. Stroeer eats as

clean as possible. “I

double down on vege-

tables, salmon, avoca-

dos and cottage

cheese and I cut out

alcohol, caffeine and

minimize processed

foods and sugar,

sometimes for as

much as four months

in advance,” she says.

“I place great em-

phasis on weaning myself off caf-

feine so that my receptors are ex-

tra sensitive to caffeine

stimulation when I get to a point

in the run where I want that

boost.”

At race aid stations she eats ev-

erything in sight, including ramen,

quesadillas and grilled cheese. On

unorganized runs she relies on en-

ergy-dense chews, waffles, gels

and drinks. A two-burner stove

serves as her van kitchen. “Dinner

is pretty formulaic,” she says.

“Protein, starch, veg.”

The Gear and Cost

Ms. Stroeer swears by her Leki

Micro Trail Pro trail running poles

($200). She prefers to wear an all-

terrain mid-top boot made by Lowa

rather than trail running shoes. Her

running is slow and technical

enough that she considers the

shoes’ extra weight a necessary

trade-off for stability. “I go faster

knowing I can charge through an-

kle-breaking terrain in boots,” she

says. For big races, she carries a 12-

pound pack with 2 liters of water, a

headlamp, a puffy jacket, gloves,

rain shell, iodine tablets to purify

water and a bivvi bag.

SUNNY STROEERknewitwas
time to quit her job when, toward
the end of the Ghosts of Yellow-
stone 100-mile trail race in 2014,
she started hallucinating about
calendar invites from clients.
Born in Germany, Ms. Stroeer
came to the U.S. to attend Harvard
Business School
and after gradua-
tion was hired at a
consulting firm in
Houston. Being an
ultra weekend war-
rior while working
80-hour weeks had
caught up to her.
“I was burning
out,” she says.
“Racers would go
home to sleep and
recover and I’d go
home to hop on cli-
ent calls.” In 2015,
she quit her job,
moved into her
Chevy Astro van and dedicated her
days to trail running.
Ms. Stroeer, 34, describes her-
self as a high-altitude endurance
specialist or, in simpler terms, a
mountain athlete. “I was an OK ul-
tra runner but a passionate high-
altitude mountaineer, so I com-
bined the two and now I tell
people I try to go up mountains as
fast as possible,” she says. “I love
the psychological challenge and

sense of personal discovery. It’s a

physical test, but also a mental

one to see how much adversity

you can deal with.”

In 2017, Ms. Stroeer gained at-

tention in the adventure world

when she set the female speed re-

cord of eight hours and 47 min-

utes up Argen-

tina’s 22,841-foot

Mount Aconcagua,

South America’s

highest peak. She

is part of a grow-

ing number of ath-

letes who eschew

race medals for

the glory of set-

ting their fastest

known time, or

FKT. Because it in-

volves no sanc-

tioned race, ath-

letes announce

their intended

goal in advance so

others can follow along and verify

their claims via live GPS tracking.

Ms. Stroeer jokes that mountain

running is a very slow sport. “The

running part is kind of a misno-

mer, as the majority of the time

you’re power hiking,” she says.

“It’s taken me nine hours to cover

1.5 miles.” This summer she at-

tempted and failed to set a speed

record on Nolan’s 14, a route over

the 14 summits over 14,000 feet in

WHAT’S YOUR WORKOUT?| JEN MURPHY

She’s Got

Nowhere to Run

But Up

higher, she moves her van to a lo-

cation that allows her to sleep and

train at altitude. She spent much

of this summer in Leadville, Colo.,

a town at 10,152 feet.

Spending as much time as pos-

sible on the trails helps her de-

velop lateral stability in her calves

and ankle strength, she says. Dur-

ing a peak training week, she

might spend over 30 hours on the

trails, covering around 80 miles

with 28,000 feet of vertical gain.

Ms. Stroeer’s husband, Paul

Gagner, quit his job last year to

travel with her. He hates running

but joins her rock climbing twice a

week. “It’s great for building core

and leg strength, as well as im-

proving flexibility and agility,” she

says. She also does a seven-exer-

cise body-weight circuit three to

four days a week. Exercises in-

clude planks, push-ups, crunches

and Russian twists, where she bal-

ances in boat pose and twists from

right to left.

“I always have tight hamstrings

and calves, so pigeon pose and for-

ward bends are daily rituals,” she

says. A lack of sleep was one reason

she decided to quit her job. “I was

averaging four hours a night,” she

around the world to experience

this generation’s most incompara-

ble and iconic entertainer.” A rep-

resentative said Mr. Marciano

wasn’t available to comment.

The last time Mr. John per-

formed in the Seattle/Tacoma area

was during 2014’s “Follow the Yel-

low Brick Road” tour, celebrating

the 40th anniversary and reissue

of his album. According to Pollstar,

the 2014 U.S. tour averaged

$1,017,568 a night, with 9,825 tick-

ets sold. The current ‘Farewell Yel-

low Brick Road Tour’ is averaging

$2,377,994, with 17,951 tickets sold

each night. Ticket prices in 2014

averaged $103, currently they av-

erage $132.

Doc McGhee, manager of KISS,

which is still rocking despite a

2001 farewell tour, says the band

is getting “probably 20 percent

more people wanting to see the

show than before, maybe more.”

Mr. McGhee says many bands,

including KISS, mean it when they

say they’ll hang it up at the end of

the tour—but can have a change of

heart. “If you’ve been a performer

for 45 years or you’ve been a quar-

terback for 20 years,” he says, “the

day that you have to stop, you’re

not looking forward to it at the

end. It’s a very emotionally tough

thing for somebody to do, ’cause

that’s their life.”

Mr. Rodger says artists who re-

turn after a farewell tour risk

turning off fans. But lively ticket

sales on post-farewell runs by art-

ists like Cher suggest fans are for-

giving. At the show in Tacoma—

the first of two—Mr. John told the

audience, before playing “Don’t

LettheSunGoDownOnMe”—

“With every fiber of my being, I

will miss you.” He never said he

wouldn’t be back. Steve Casteel,

who spent $400 on a pair of tick-

ets, said he wouldn’t feel cheated

if there were a follow-up to the

farewell tour. “I would love to see

him again,” Mr. Casteel says.

BYCHRISKORNELIS

VALENTIN FLAURAUD/EPA/SHUTTERSTOCK

Elton John brought his ‘Farewell Yellow Brick Road’ tour in June to the Montreux Jazz Festival in Switzerland.

The Big Business of Rock ‘n’ Roll

Farewell Tours

Ms. Stroeer climbed Argentina’s

Mount Aconcagua in 2017.