Why do aging rock stars still perform up into their late 70’s or 80’s?

Thinking you nailed it, especially with the last two.

For the same reasons they have been performing all along. If they were only interested in a comfortable retirement, they could have all quit long ago.

Artists have an innate desire to express themselves. Remove their outlet for expression, and they would dry up like old raisins.

For many of them, it is fun.

I saw Paul Simon last month on his “farewell” tour. He isn’t retiring, he is just not going to tour anymore.

Why do actors still act when they’re in their 70’s and 80’s?

I think it’s the same reason why people sing, paint or write in their later years – they genuinely like what they do.

Passion for their work. The reason why they became artists in the first place, instead of being a plumber who hates going to work every day, longing for the day of his death.

Most musicians are not rich. In fact I read an article once by Devin Townsend who said that he makes about $60,000 per year despite the fact he works his butt off. Nobody makes money selling CDs or mp3s anymore because everybody is streaming music, and the artist make literally pennies, if anything, off of apps like Spotify. And people bootleg everything onto youtube.

Additionally many of these musicians have gotten ripped off by the record companies, the agents, and the managers, and they don’t have a lot of money. So literally the only way they can make any money is to perform and to have people pay for their music ahead of time on Pledge Music.

force of habit

Because they can.

People still want to hear them. Maybe they feel a sense of obligation.

“I’d rather be dead than sing ‘Satisfaction’ when I’m 45” -Mick Jagger

I love that they’re still performing. :) I hope they wouldn’t do it unless they enjoyed it.

Because they have that business they call show flowing through their ever narrowing veins & the thrill of the limelight never leaves them…bless.

I think it’s so much a part of who they are and what defines them that they can no more just quit than….. give me a comparison here. I don’t really know music, but I know people who do, and for them it’s an urge, an instinct they can not deny. I must be expressed.

Performing is a drug. That said, it is a tad ridiculous to see someone like Roger Daltry, in his mid-70s, still singing “hope I die before I get old”.

It is kind of pathetic in a way. That’s why I resist going to see them. I’ll just stick with my memories of them. They were young, I was young, and that’s how I’m going to keep it.

Maybe they enjoy it, and maybe doing the thing they did since their younger days helps forget how old they are, and how little of their life they have remaining.

Who among us would pass up being adored until we die?
They put their soul out for the public to enjoy, and when we do, year after year from one generation to the next, it validates their existence.
If you have family who loves you, adores you, do you quit going to Thanksgiving dinner just because all your portions have to be pureed?
Of course not.

Ego$.

Applause is a plausible answer.

Because they have talent, and they enjoy it, and the fans (of which I am one) enjoy it too. Music is an art. It’s in your blood, for both the musician, and the music lover.