'70s Rock Legends We Predict Will Say Farewell To Music In 2026

We all know the aging band retirement cycle by now, right? It's, a) Announce retirement, b) Do farewell tour, c) Announce comeback, d) Do comeback tour, and, e) Repeat. What better way to drum up excitement, ticket sales, merch sales, record sales (for the diehards who still buy records), and so forth. KISS did this, as did loads of other acts across the decades, like The Who, Cream, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Slayer, Motley Crüe, Black Sabbath, and Ozzy Osbourne, the last of whom we'll never get to hear sing again. But in 2026, it looks like some musicians from the '70s might be calling it quits, permanently. Maybe.

We're focusing on the '70s because, let's be honest, that's also the age bracket of original band members from that decade: 70s. Take the ruckus rockers of AC/DC, formed in 1973 in Sydney, Australia. Singer Brian Johnson and schoolboy outfit-wearing Angus Young are 78 and 70, respectively, as of this writing. Some fans are all but begging them to stop because of Johnson's failing voice, but the band is still touring and overflowing with energy. Judas Priest lead singer Rob Halford is 74 and he absolutely crushed a recent 2025 Hellfest performance, high notes and all (not touched up, we might add). It doesn't seem likely he'll be retiring soon, either. 

Other '70s musicians, however, have had enough of the biz and are ready to hang up their hats. Lou Gramm of Foreigner fame announced that 2026 will be his final musical year, as did Aussie rockers Rose Tattoo. Other retirements are less than clear, but at least in the cards for 2026, including Eagles, The Who (yes, again), and possibly even Queen. 

Foreigner is no stranger to Byzantine, will-they, won't-they band retirement shenanigans. The New York City-born band, who has continued to want to know what love is since 1976, announced a farewell tour back in 2022. That tour, which started in 2023, wound up marking singer Kelly Hansen's departure, even though he didn't officially announce his retirement until 2025. He even left mid-tour, and guitarist Luis Maldonado had to step up to fill his vocal shoes. The band's original lead singer, Lou Gramm, meanwhile, had left the band way back in 2003 but had a change of heart after Foreigner got inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2024. In 2021, he'd started touring again, solo, and even showed up on stage at some Foreigner shows after Hansen left. All this is to say: Such complications are practically commonplace for lots of older bands, making it all but impossible to predict precisely who'll retire and when.

But now, Gramm has apparently announced that he's retiring for good, at least until the next time. But, his rationale is sincere and perfectly valid. As Ultimate Classic Rock quotes, "[I'd like to] just stay off the road and enjoy my home, the surroundings and my family and friends, something that I've had to sacrifice for over 50 years." At 75 years old, few sentiments could be so understandable. Foreigner, meanwhile, is going to keep kicking around, likely with Maldonado singing hits like "Waiting for a Girl Like You" and "Cold as Ice." But given the band's track record, they might be calling it quits in the near future. 

In 2023, Don Henley and his fellow Eagles announced that they were heading out on their final, aptly named "The Long Goodbye" tour. That goodbye has been so long, in fact, that they're still saying it. The writers of the longest guitar solo in the history of ever in "Hotel California" — a song about drugs, fame, or the lost American dream; take your pick — have take up residency in the Sphere, Las Vegas, a bonkers, LED dome that cost $2.3 billion and was finished in 2023. They were going to call it quits in 2025, but demand being what it was (and front row ticket prices exceeding $2,700 per person), Eagles have decided that they're not quite ready to finish their goodbyes. They had four additional February 2026 shows added to their Sphere schedule, ending on the last day of the month. That makes 52 shows total, the most for any musical act at the Sphere.

After this final run of bank account deposits, what will the '70s' most famous bird-named band do? Henley is the oldest of Eagles' current lineup at 78, with Joe Walsh and Timothy B. Schmit close behind at 77 and Vince Gill at 68. Given their pedigree and total records sales of 200 million worldwide, including 45 million for their greatest hits alone (number one for the entire century), Eagles have nothing to prove. A love of the music and a desire to connect with happy fans might be enough to extend their tour further, plus their Sphere show's dizziness-inducing ticket prices. If not, their final February 28 show might be it.

The Who has been calling it quits since 1982. As Rolling Stone quotes singer Roger Daltrey at the time, "We can't play any bigger stadiums to any more people. We'd just be parodying ourselves." Cut to 1989 and they might not have been doing that, but they were still performing. A whopping 36 years later, the band's two living members, Peter Townshend (80) and Robert Daltrey (81), are still performing. And before anyone raises a hand to object, yes, we know that The Who released their first album, "My Generation," in 1965, a mere two years after The Beatles released their debut, "Please Please Me," in 1963. But The Who was arguably at the height of their fame by the '70s, so they and their very, very Bri'ish sound make the cut for this article.     

At present, Townshend and Daltrey have already finished up the final date of their ostensible farewell tour, The Song Is Over. But even though the tour was billed as the quartet-turned-duo's final round on the stage, things are still up in the air. Speaking to The New York Times in August 2025 about the band's previous "retirements," Townshend said, "Are you suggesting we're swindling the public? The fact is, we are willing to swindle them. That's what we've done our entire life. Why stop?" Townshend continues by saying that the band's future is essentially up to Daltrey, but for his part he'd rather be at home with "my family, my studios, my dogs and my friends" rather than touring and eventually "drop dead on the stage." Time will tell, but it makes sense that we might actually see The Who wave goodbye in 2026.

To many, Queen effectively ended following the death of godly frontman Freddie Mercury in 1991. And indeed, bassist John Deacon left the band following Mercury's death to lead a quiet life out of the public eye. This left drummer Roger Taylor and guitarist-songwriter Brian May as the band's only remaining members. They stitched together one album four years later in 1995, "Made in Heaven," using posthumous snippets of Mercury's voice. But, the band never dissolved. Since 2009, they've toured with singer and "American Idol" loser Adam Lambert as "Queen + Adam Lambert," where Lambert does Mercury's vocals. That means Queen's monumental legacy and 300 million in record sales stems from a mere 21 active years, from 1970 when Queen formed till 1991 when Mercury died.

On these merits alone, it's no wonder why May and Taylor never officially called it quits; folks would probably show up to Queen tribute acts in 2150. Nonetheless, May is 78 years old and Taylor is 76. May expressed fatigue with the rock star life in late September 2025, telling Rolling Stone, " I've had 50 years of touring, and there's a part of me that thinks it's enough. I don't like the idea that you wake up in your hotel room and you're trapped." At the same time, May was so "blown away" by a recent Eagles performance at the Sphere in Las Vegas that he and Lambert have gotten into conversations with the venue about a 2026 residency. After that final fire dies down, though, May might want to happily retire.

Unless you're an Australian of a certain generation or really enjoy digging into musical scenes, the name Rose Tattoo might have passed you by. But, they're still legendary in their own right, within their own musical microcosm. Just imagine a bunch of tatted-up, biker-looking Aussie tough guys with a lead singer named Angry Anderson, and you'll get the general idea. Formed in Sydney in 1976, Rose Tattoo has seven studio albums to their name and an AC/DC soundalike quality to their music, but with a bit more of a nonconformist edge. But because all bald things must come to an end, Rose Tattoo has officially announced that they will be retiring in 2026, having hit their 50-year milestone as a band. They have a short, final run of shows from early May to early June 2026, in Australia, and then they'll be riding their Harleys off into the sunset.

Or maybe not. Even though you might think the no-nonsense guys of Rose Tattoo would be immune to the same back-and-forths as the other entries in this article, the band is reportedly writing a final album to commemorate their retirement. This will mark their first album of new studio songs since 2007's "Blood Brothers." But, as Loudersound quotes Anderson, "I think we're still going to keep writing and recording even after that, because this particular lineup is on fire." If this is true, and the band continues writing and recording after 2026, then they won't have retired next year, after all. They might even do a comeback and farewell tour, the sequel. Who knows?