Call it a comeback: Musicians who came out of retirement

“I think we have to accept that [a reunion] will not happen because we are too old and each one of us has their own life.” This is what Agnetha Fältskog said in 2013 when asked if ABBA, the pop outfit to end all pop outfits, would ever get back together. While the group never formally retired, they were effectively inactive, shepherding their legacy and back catalog into new projects. While the success of the film and stage musical “Mamma Mia!” had revitalized interest in the group’s discography, sonic tinkerers Björn Ulvaeus and Benny Andersson decided some new material should be penned for (sigh) their “ABBAtars” tour, wherein hologram-type digital renderings of the group would tour all their classic material. The concept for the tour remains questionable, but once new songs started coming together, the group effectively reunited, dropping “Voyage”, their first album of new material in four decades, in late 2021. While Fältskog and Anni-Frid Lyngstad agreed to participate only if they didn’t have to promote the record, such quibbles were minor, as it resulted in the group topping numerous worldwide charts, selling millions of copies, and netting (amazingly) their first-ever Grammy nomination. Fans always had a little faith in them, after all.

Through the ’90s and early 2000s, Jay-Z built an empire out of his braggadocious brand of East Coast rap. By the time that 2003 rolled around, the man otherwise known as Shawn Carter decided to hang it all up, as his business ventures were proving to be so lucrative that he figured why not check out of the game on a high note. His much-hyped “final” record, “The Black Album”, ended up being pretty divisive (some singles like “Change Clothes” are pretty disposable, while others, like the Rick Rubin-produced rock banger “99 Problems” ended up being the most enduring of his career), but the gambit to end his run on his own terms gave him a huge critical and commercial payoff. The only problem? He didn’t leave the game. He dropped a Linkin Park remix album, an R. Kelly collaborative record, tons of guest verses on other songs, and even became the CEO and President of Def Jam Records. Three years (and one week) later, Jay-Z broke his spell by dropping his lukewarm comeback record “Kingdom Come”, where he falsely claimed that 30 is the new 20.

Back in 1992, Ozzy Osbourne had been recording and touring his music for over two decades, so it made sense that he would want to spend some time focusing on his family after his blistering solo success. Following the release of 1991’s “No More Tears”, Osbourne was misdiagnosed with multiple sclerosis, so it made sense that he’d want to leave his demanding day job behind, embarking on the aptly titled “No More Tours” tour. Yet following some time away from the mic (and realizing that “No More Tears” was turning into one of his best-selling albums), he returned in 1995 with his new album “Ozzmosis” and the even more appropriately titled “Retirement Sucks Tour”. The Ozzman cameth and the Ozzman conquered.

By the time that Phil Collins put out his eighth studio album “Going Back” in 2010, he had been releasing music for close to four decades, both solo and with his time in Genesis. While he was happy to tour a couple of dates to promote that new album of Motown covers, the reality was setting in: he wanted to spend more time with his family, and after all of these years of drumming, he was showing some understandable wear and tear. In a 2011 newspaper interview, Collins admitted that he was looking for time off from his day job, which, days later, was clarified by one of his U.K. publicists that he actually had no intention of retiring. Then, 24 hours later, he announced on his website that he was indeed retiring. It was a wild turn of events, and in the years that followed, he teased the release of more music, and by the time his autobiography “Not Dead Yet” was released in 2016, he announced a short tour to go along with it. Sometimes you can’t always take statements from rock legends at … “Face Value”.

“I just don’t think I have that much to say. A lot of the stuff that I want to say musically, it has a limit.” So said Lupe Fiasco in a 2008 article for SF Weekly wherein he lamented working in an industry where fame and respect were difficult bedfellows for the rapper. Yet this all came to a head in 2016 when after dropping a freestyle on SoundCloud with some seemingly anti-Semitic lines, the track was removed, and he went on a Twitter tirade, saying that he got “the hint” and said he was “officially not releasing any more music. Albums canceled.” Thus, his career-finishing “Drogas” trilogy of albums wouldn’t see the light of day … at least until early 2017, when “Drogas Light” was released, and “Drogas Wave” coming right after that in 2018. While his commercial fortunes have faded in recent years, he’s still making the rounds touring his classic albums in full, so maybe another comeback is in sight. Or, quite possibly, another retirement. It’s sometimes impossible to tell with Lupe.

Oh, you didn’t hear? Justin Bieber is retiring — or at least that’s what he claimed back in late 2013. During a radio interview with L.A. Power 106, he said that following the release of his album “Journals,” he was retiring and that “I’m just gonna take some time. I think I’m probably gonna quit music.” The shock statement was attempted to be debunked the following day, and although he said it with a straight face, he has very much not been retired since then. Some argued that just a few days prior, he was being roasted by comedian (and now-alleged sexual predator) Chris D’Elia, so Bieber was perhaps trying his hand at jokes. Unfortunately, if it was attempted to be a Joaquin Phoenix-styled “I’m Still Here”-level prank, it did not work. Bieber has attempted no other grand declarations since then.

If you’re a living legend that’s been in the entertainment industry as long as Barbara Streisand has, you can be forgiven for not believing her numerous claims of retiring from the industry over the decades. Yet in 2000, she closed out Madison Square Garden with her final performance, saying at the time that “It feels like time to say goodbye to this part of my life.” She wanted to spend more time focusing on acting and directing. While she did manage to put out some studio albums in the years that followed, she ended up returning to the stage for the “Streisand” tour in 2006-2007, followed by the “Barbra Live” tour in 2012, and the sporadic 2016 concert series called “Barbra: The Music, The Mem’ries, The Magic.” Despite her admitted stage fright, there’s nothing quite like performing for a crowd, and in Babs’ case, it doesn’t hurt when virtually every date you play is sold out.

Back in 2013, R&B superstar Toni Braxton shocked the world by saying that “I’m just not going to do any albums anymore; maybe touring occasionally here and there because I love performing, but not as much as I did in the past. But no new projects.” On the one hand, it made sense, as her run of singles between 1993 and 2000 was immensely impactful and established her as a bright young superstar in the industry. Still, her fortunes then had noticeably dwindled since then. While her non-music projects since her being announcement then have been of varying quality (including a 2016 Lifetime original movie about her life that she co-wrote), Braxton has quietly managed to break her own promise and has released three studio records and completed two large tours. For fans left sad and confused by her initial retirement announcement, Braxton really did unbreak their heart.

Every phase of Tina Turner’s career has been its own kind of revelation. Having been performing since the early ’60s, it’s of no surprise that she would want to explore other avenues by the time the late ’80s had rolled around. Especially following her acclaimed performance in 1985’s “Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome”, Turner was looking to make bigger moves into the film industry and designed “Foreign Affair: The Farewell Tour” to be just that: a way to say goodbye to all of her non-American fans. Performing over 100 shows throughout Europe in 1990, Turner found the experience surprisingly refreshing, especially upon finding out she was one of the first women to sell out some of the stadiums she was performing. Thus, while she did hold to her promise to work on films for a spell, she couldn’t stay away from her first calling for long. With her autobiographical movie “What’s Love Got to Do With It” and soundtrack album dropping in 1993, she mounted a similarly themed tour right around the same time to predictably massive success. Following her 50th Anniversary tour from 2008/2009, she finally retired for good.

Following the international breakthrough success of her 2006 single “Smile”, Lily Allen could do whatever she wanted, and, surprisingly, that’s exactly what she did. From hosting an extremely weird talk show that only ran for eight episodes in 2008 to getting in fights with music legends at fashion shows, it was clear that Allen had a complicated relationship with fame. After her best-selling sophomore album “It’s Not Me, It’s You” dominated most of 2009, she revealed later that year that she was going to retire, saying in a since-deleted blog post that “The days of me making money from recording music have been and gone as far as I’m concerned.” She focused on her family and did some light acting and documentary work in the intervening years, but later admitted that staying at home wasn’t for her, finally came back with her big and brassy album “Sheezus” in 2014 and embarking on a huge supporting tour immediately after that. On that album’s lead single, “Hard Out Here”, she even acknowledged the change in lifestyle by noting, “You’ll find me in the studio and not in the kitchen.” Now that’s something to “Smile” about.

“This is really it,” Meat Loaf told Reuters regarding his 2013 “Last at Bat Farewell Tour.” “I just don’t want to travel anymore. I outweigh Jagger by about 100 pounds and that counts for something. He hasn’t seen the wear and tear.” In truth, the Loaf had his reasons for wanting to stop the physical toll of touring for some time, as he had to cancel a 2007 tour of Europe after developing a cyst on his vocal cords. While the “Last at Bat” tour went off successfully, Meat Loaf couldn’t fully walk away from the game, soon starting a short residency at Planet Hollywood in Las Vegas and then touring once again across 2015-2016. A planned tour to support his 2016 record “Braver Than We Are” was initially planned but then canceled, proving that while he would do anything for his love of touring, he wouldn’t do that.

“There are two reasons people come back,” Cher told USA Today in 2005. “Because, like the Stones, they’re broke. Again. Or they’re old divas who can’t wait to be out among their adoring fans. But this, this truly is it.” At the time, the iconic diva was winding down her “Living Proof: The Farewell Tour,” which ended up being so popular that she initially extended by a jaw-dropping 100 additional dates. Maybe she truly was done this time — except, as we know, it’s Cher, so she’s never done. Initially wanting to sign off of touring to focus on albums and acting (which, of course, included a role in 2010’s “Burlesque”), her 2013 album “Closer to the Truth” demanded a wider audience. Hence, she went back to touring, and when it came to her 2018 album of ABBA covers, she headed out on the road for the aptly-named “Here We Go Again” tour. They say that after the apocalypse, the only things that will be left are cockroaches and Cher, and even then, she’ll still probably be touring.

“I’ve been thinking for some time now it’s time to make NIN disappear for a while,” wrote Trent Reznor on his website in 2009. Having put out several albums in quick succession in 2007 and 2008, it almost felt like Reznor was giving NIN one last spurt before marrying and focusing on film composition. He even closed out his run with the aptly-titled “Wave Goodbye” tour. He wasn’t afraid of putting out new music under his moniker, but after winning an Oscar for his score to the 2010 film “The Social Network”, it seemed like Reznor didn’t have any need for NIN in his life anymore, especially on the touring front. Yet with the release of his 2013 album “Hesitation Marks”, a tour was announced alongside it. Reznor, as always, was blunt about what transpired: “I did a farewell tour, ten years ago or whenever it was, and then ate my words.” Given that he was touring Nine Inch Nails as recently as 2018, it seems that Reznor is still eating them.

For a hot moment in the mid-’60s, it appeared that Vashti Bunyan was going to be the next big thing in folk rock. An admitted Bob Dylan acolyte, she was discovered by The Rolling Stones’ manager, who set up her debut song to be a Jagger/Richards composition called “Some Things Just Stick in Your Mind” (which, as a studio musician bonus, has Jimmy Page on guitar). Other singles and contribution cuts appeared, but by the time her debut album “Just Another Diamond Day” came out in 1970, she received next to no attention. Frustrated by the reception, she withdrew from the music industry, spending the decades that followed focused on raising her family. Much to her surprise, the “freak folk” scene of the early 2000s was filled with musicians who idolized and worshiped Bunyan’s debut. Soon she was invited on albums by the likes of Animal Collective and Devendra Banhart. This goodwill was so overwhelming that she felt inspired to give this music thing another go, and her 2005 album “Lookaftering” gained her a whole new young audience who appreciated what she did for the scene. In 2014, she put out her third album, “Heartleap”, which she also said would be her last. She thought she’d be a footnote in history, but thankfully for everyone, she had several more diamond days left in her.

With a distinctively laid-back flow, there was something immensely appealing about Ma$e, a young ’90s signee to Puff Daddy‘s Bad Boy Entertainment. His debut single “Feel So Good” was a massive rap and pop hit, and after being featured on some key Notorious B.I.G. tracks, Ma$e had the credentials to match his appeal, sending his first two albums to multi-platinum status. Yet following the release of 1999’s “Double Up”, Ma$e said he heard a calling from God and wanted to become a pastor. He even published a book in 2001 with the horrible title “Revelations: There’s a Light After the Lime”. Yet in 2004, he returned to the game with a song and album both aptly named “Welcome Back” before falling in with 50 Cent’s notably more gangster-leaning G-Unit crew. After suddenly feeling out of place in his new surroundings, Ma$e left the industry once again, only to return to it in 2009. The key difference to his post-2009 songs was that, unlike all his previous hits, no one was paying attention this time. Maybe he cried wolf too many times, but despite threatening to release his album “Now We Even” several times over, it has yet to see the light of day (or the light after the lime, for that matter).

If there’s one thing Rick Astley is known for, it’s 1987’s “Never Gonna Give You Up”, a pitch-perfect slice of dance-pop cheese straight out of the Stock Aitken Waterman songwriting warehouse. It was his debut single, a worldwide chart-topper, and the kind of thing that would make you a one-hit-wonder if you weren’t careful. Thankfully for Astley, he had several other hits (including “Together Forever”), but once the ’90s hit, his fortunes faded, despite taking a stronger hand in his own songwriting and production. He retired at the young age of 27, getting increasingly upset over how the business side of the music business worked and instead spent time focusing on raising a family. While he returned with a few slight albums in the early 2000s, the ongoing popularity of “Never Gonna Give You Up,” and its eventual memeification kept his profile alive, and he slowly gained not just a new legion of fans but also genuine respect for his art and craft. Then with his 2016 album “50”, he pulled off the impossible: he went straight to #1 in the U.K., something he hadn’t done since his debut album. He claimed he was never gonna give you up, but it’s his fans that never gave up on him.

Without question, Robert Fripp is one of the most influential guitarists of all time, as his deep understanding of texture and love of studio effects helped make him nothing short of a sonic innovator. From his time in King Crimson to his era-defining collaborations with Peter Gabriel, Talking Heads, David Bowie, and especially Brian Eno, Fripp has been working on his craft since the late ’60s. In a 2012 interview with the Financial Times, Fripp revealed that he had become increasingly disillusioned with the music industry, his dispute with Universal Records getting so heated that he “couldn’t concentrate on music,” going on to say that he “made the choice to give up my career as a musician in the frontline to deal with the business.” Yet one year later, his dispute with Universal was resolved. Suddenly he was un-retired, announcing a new lineup of King Crimson that toured in the years that followed, as well as dropping some new collaborative records with saxophonist Theo Travis. You can try and bring him down, but Fripp gonna keep Frippin’.

New Orleans’ own Master P is a self-made man, having formed his own No Limit record label but not finding much success in the early ’90s until he finally released “Mr. Ice Cream Man” in 1996. Yet it was his 1998 single “Make ‘Em Say Uhh!” that launched him and his crew (including Mystikal) into the mainstream. It was so omnipresent that later in the year, he unveiled “MP da Last Don”, which was billed as Master P’s final album as if he wanted to leave the game on a high note. It debuted at the top of the charts, and then … he put out another album the following year called “Only God Can Judge Me”. Some fans were a bit miffed by how quickly he abandoned his “last album ever” gambit, but Master P was also focusing his energies on trying to make it to the NBA at the time. He played in some preseasons but didn’t make any rosters, so he fell back on his music. Unfortunately for him, his commercial fortunes never matched his “Last Don” highs ever again.

Kelis’s career has been all over the place, largely because she is a very dynamic songwriter and performer that doesn’t fit in one box. She could do neo-soul and club tracks and ballads effortlessly, and perhaps that’s why after hits like the bridge-burning “Caught Out There” and tawdry goof “Milkshake”, her label didn’t know what to do with her. While her fourth album “Kelis Was Here” netted her a modest hit in the form of “Bossy” and even landed her a Grammy nomination, Kelis was upset that her record label didn’t do much to promote the record and swore never to make another album again, saying at the time that “I hate this business, I hate all these people.” She left her label and started chef training to pursue her love of food. Yet in 2010, she returned to music, signed to a new label, and started releasing weirder, wilder cuts that seemed to fit her more comfortably, with her last studio record, 2014’s delightful “Food”, showcasing her talents in new and exciting forms. It wasn’t a huge commercial success, but it didn’t need to be: after stepping away from the industry for a spell, she came back into it only after finding her true musical voice. Even as of this writing, she is still teasing out new songs, and quite frankly, we’re ready for it.

Frank Sinatra’s first album came out in 1946, and in the many decades that followed, he put out dozens of full-lengths, often dropping multiple new records in the course of a single year. Yet by the time his experimental narrative album “Watertown” received a muted reception in 1970, it became clear that Sinatra was growing tired of performing the same old songs for the same old crowds, despite his superstar status as both a singer and film actor. He wanted not to do anything for some time and followed through on this retirement promise, only coming out to perform live at the behest of President Richard Nixon for a voters rally in 1972. Yet despite his limited appearances, you can’t keep Sinatra away from the microphone for too long. Almost in defiance to “Watertown” flopping on the charts, he defiantly called his 1973 return album “Ol’ Blue Eyes Is Back”, pairing it with a television special that saw him reunite with his old on-screen buddy Gene Kelly. The gambit worked, as the album became his first to get a Gold certification in four years and featured his legendary studio take of “Send in the Clowns”.

While Too $hort never found a booty anthem he didn’t like, his pimp-centric schtick got kind of old as he kept dishing it out in the late ’80s and early ’90s. His debut single “Freaky Tales” will always be a hypnotic classic, and by the time he put out “Gettin’ It (Album Number Ten)” in 1996, he said in the lyrics that he was going to “kick it like this on the last album.” That record was his last one to go Platinum, and outside of a Lil’ Kim collaboration for the “Booty Call” soundtrack, Too $hort kept to his word and left rapping behind … at least until 1999 when he put out the appropriately-titled “Can’t Stay Away”. He’d dropped close to a dozen albums since then, but nothing has come close to his mack-heavy glory days. He did get a brief surge of commercial reinterest in 2004 when his classic 1990 single “The Ghetto” showed up on the “Grand Theft Audio: San Andreas” video game. Sadly, it was not enough to get fans interested in his most recent output.

It is really hard to articulate how big Garth Brooks was in the ’90s. Despite none of his songs crossing over into Top 40 radio (save for one as his alt-rock alter ego Chris Gaines), Brooks’ big-chorus songwriting and over-the-top arena shows helped push country music into the mainstream in a big way, quickly becoming the best-selling solo artist in U.S. history. While he threatened to retire several times over his blockbuster decade, he finally went through on his promise in 2001, putting out one last album (“Scarecrow”) before calling it a day to focus on his family. Starting 2005, he slowly started working his way back into the industry, forming his own record label and scoring exclusive deals through Walmart to deliver multi-disc box sets of his catalog, nearly every release topping the charts. He even started his own digital music store called GhostTunes in 2014, coinciding with the release of his first true blue comeback album “Man Against Machine”. While he can still be spotted touring and recording with his wife Trisha Yearwood, Brooks’ influence in the 2010s is just a shadow of what it used to be, but given his knack for rebranding and releasing his catalog over and over again, it’s clear that it pays to have friends in high places.