Cliff Richard says 'I might be dead next year' as he shares sad tour update with fans
Sir Cliff Richard says he will probably have to quit touring - and the rock 'n' roll singer famous for his hip thrusts may only perform a few dance steps on stage at his upcoming shows.
'I don't want to be an 85-year-old guy trying to be 18,' he said, admitting that he has started to think about his own mortality. Cliff is performing in Australia and New Zealand before returning to the UK in November, a month after he turns 85.
The singer, known affectionately as the Peter Pan of Pop due to his eternal youth, admits that touring can be exhausting and has started to take its toll. He said: 'The thing I would have to give up probably at some time is touring. It's very wearing, and you never know when you wake up in the morning whether your voice is still there.'
Asked if his upcoming Can't Stop Me Now tour could be a farewell tour or if he could return, he was undecided.
'I don't know," he admitted. "I might be dead the next year! So I don't even think about it anymore. It's one of those things. As I get older maybe I'll become less able to perform, so I can't say…' However, he does hope to perform some of his trademark dance moves that first endeared him to fans back in the 1950s, when his performances of debut single Move It were deemed 'too sexy' for TV.
He is hoping to perform a routine with two backing singers and dancers to his 1962 hit with his former band Cliff Richard and The Shadows, Do You Want To Dance? But acknowledges he is still yet to determine if it will be possible, and hopes to be able to when he starts rehearsals.
He tells New Zealand radio station Coast: 'I used to move around a heck of a lot and there was a period when I would get four girl dancers, four guy dancers and I used to dance with them.
'What I don't want to be is an 85-year-old guy trying to be 18. So, I can still move on stage. And that's what I do. I've got two backing singers, two guys, and they can dance, they can act, they can sing, they can play instruments.
'And I'm going to see, when I get to rehearsals, to just say, 'let's talk about maybe doing two songs where you come and join me out front. And while we're singing something like Do You Want To Dance we do a few steps like that?'
'I don't want to try and be 18 anymore. I like singing now, I'm as excited now as I was when I came [to New Zealand] last time. And I'm sure the audience will see that we - the big band and I - are friends and almost a family when we're on tour. So we'll try and do something that will make it look as though I'm 18! But I'm not.'
Cliff, who has sold more than 260 million records worldwide, has previously said he has no plans to retire, and spoke of his hopes to still be on stage in his 90s.
Cliff's upcoming Can't Stop Me Now tour will include two dates at the Royal Albert Hall, where he holds a record for performing 32 dates in two batches. He is also the only artist to have a top 5 album in eight different decades.
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