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Wanda Jackson Announces Retirement From Touring
John Davisson – Wanda Jackson
Ponte Vedra Concert Hall, Ponte Vedra, Fla.
Wanda Jackson gave fans a double whammy of bad news this week with the announcement that not only was she canceling a few appearances but that she was retiring from touring altogether.
“After over 60 years of touring, Wanda Jackson wishes to announce her retirement from performing,” a statement posted on her Facebook page March 26 said. The post explained that the decision to retire was based “solely on health and safety,” though the statement didn’t go into details.
“It has been a wild ride. Thank you all for all the years of continued fandom and support. This is not the end, just the beginning of a new chapter. Join us as we congratulate the Queen of Rockabilly on over six decades of rip roaring live performances, priceless stories and countless shimmies.”
The 81-year-old singer/songwriter/pianist/guitarist was supposed to take the stage at Viva Las Vegas Rockabilly Weekend, scheduled April 18-19, and Nashville Boogie Vintage Weekender, May 18-21.
“In true rockabilly spirit, please still go out to these shows and keep the spirit of rockabilly alive,” the statement added.
The 81-year-old legendary singer/songwriter/pianist/guitarist had toured for more than 60 years.
Variety reports that one of Jackson’s most recent live gigs was an appearance at Pappy & Harriet’s in Pioneertown, Calif., last April in which she sat through her performance “but came off as vivacious and vocally robust, digging into her trademark rasp as enthusiastically as ever and regaling the crowd with tales of her experiences with everyone from Elvis Presley to Jack White.”
The most recent report submitted to Pollstar’s BoxOffice was a January 2018 show at Cain’s Ballroom in Tulsa, Okla., that sold 364 tickets and grossed $6,752.
She got her break into the music business as a high school student after country musician Hank Thompson heard Jackson singing on a local Oklahoma City radio station and she went on to record the 1954 duet “You Can’t Have My Love” with Thompson’s bandleader Billy Gray, according to The Oklahoman. The paper noted that the song hit the top 10 on the country charts and she signed with Decca Records, after Thompson’s label Capitol Records refused to give her a deal, saying that “girls don’t sell records.”
Jackson began touring by playing package shows with Carl Perkins, Johnny Cash, Jerry Lee Lewis and Elvis Presley. She made a name for herself in multiple genres, as one of the first female performers in rock ’n’ roll and rockabilly, as well as country and Gospel music. In 2009 she was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as an Early Influence.
Jackson enjoyed a surge of new fans after she released 2011’s The Party Ain’t Over, produced by Jack White, which hit No. 58 on the Billboard Hot 200 chart. Her most recent album is 2012’s Unfinished Business, produced by Justin Townes Earle.
She was managed by Wendell Goodman, her husband and manager of 55 years, until his death in 2017 after they were returning home after a tour.