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GEORGE:
UPCOMING ARENA TOUR WILL BE THE LAST!
GeorgeŽs
summer 2008 arena tour of the U.S. will be his last - because he
no longer wants to play shows to big audiences. The Fast Love
singer is set to take his 25 Live tour to America this June 08,
in what will be his first U.S. roadshow in 17 years.
But Michael,
44, admits he is desperate to scale down the size of his
concerts and play more intimate venues in future. He tells
newspaper USA Today, "I don't want to do anything on this
scale again. No more
stadiums. I'd like to be the Tony Bennett
for my generation. "It's the end of a certain era, and I'm
not sure how much I really want to be a part of what's next.
So, it's a
kind of a way of saying thank you to everybody before I move on.
But
this is not a farewell tour for the Grammy winner who shot to
stardom in the '80s with the band Wham! and crashed when he was
arrested for lewd conduct in a Beverly Hills public bathroom in
1998.
Hoping
to release more music in the future, Michael suspects he will
offer it up to fans gratis to allow for artistic freedom. "There
are other ways I can express the things I want to. And pop music
stopped being a place to express much lyrically awhile
back."
On
Thursday, he plays himself in his first major U.S. acting role
in ABC's Eli Stone (10 p.m. ET/PT), a series in which he
has appeared in brief cameos.
He
also is developing British TV programs and has received an
advance from HarperCollins to write an autobiography, in which
he would discuss the depression he suffered in the '90s.
Critical
of his own work, Michael believes his U.K. tour was "too
much of a party to represent what I've done."
That
means hits Wake Me Up (Before You Go Go) and I Want
Your Sex are out. "I'm too old," he says. "But
they'll get Careless Whisper, which I don't particularly
enjoy singing."
As
he prepares to head stateside, "there are some improvements
I can really make to the show. If I have anything to do with it,
they're going to see the best show of their lives."
Tickets
will go on sale Tuesday exclusively via an iTunes package. Tour
tickets will be available elsewhere beginning the weekend of
April 5.
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