Neil Diamond Gives Up Touring After Parkinson’s Diagnosis

Neil Diamond Image by Getty Images

By JTA January 23, 2018

(JTA) — Jewish singer-songwriter Neil Diamond announced he is giving up touring after recently being diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease.

The Australia and New Zealand leg of his 50th Anniversary tour scheduled for March have been cancelled, according to the announcement.

“It is with great reluctance and disappointment that I announce my retirement from concert touring. I have been so honored to bring my shows to the public for the past 50 years,” the artist said in a statement released on his website on Monday.

“I plan to remain active in writing, recording and other projects for a long time to come,” the statement said.

Diamond has had ten No. 1 singles: “Cracklin’ Rosie,” “Song Sung Blue,” “Longfellow Serenade,” “I’ve Been This Way Before,” “If You Know What I Mean,” “Desiree,” “You Don’t Bring Me Flowers,” “America,” “Yesterday’s Songs,” and “Heartlight.”

He starred in the 1980 remake of “The Jazz Singer,” which garnered him three Top 10 singles: “Love on the Rocks,” “Hello Again,” and “America.”

Diamond was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1984 and into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2011. He received the Sammy Cahn Lifetime Achievement Award in 2000 and was honored at the Kennedy Center in 2011.

On January 24th, Diamond will celebrate his 77th birthday, and on January 28th, the Recording Academy, at its annual Grammy Award ceremony, will honor him with its prestigious Lifetime Achievement Award.

A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.

The coming year promises to be filled with more complex and historic developments. We are entering an era where independent, fact-based Jewish journalism will be more important than ever. We need to be ready for whatever 2025 will bring, and with your help, we can be.

We’ve set a goal to raise $260,000 by December 31. That’s an ambitious goal, but one that will give us the resources we need to invest in the high quality news, opinion, analysis and cultural coverage that isn’t available anywhere else.

If you feel inspired to make an impact, now is the time to give something back. Join us as a member at your most generous level.

— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO