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‘We joke about who’s getting their knees done’: the rock veterans still touring into their late 70s

Yoga and ice baths have replaced all-nighters, but musicians such as Graham Nash, Bonnie Raitt, Rick Wakeman and Elkie Brooks aren’t planning to retire any time soon

Instead – after realising that far from being left adrift by pop’s ever-changing styles, people were still interested in what he had to offer – he recorded another 37 albums (taking his total to more than 100), penned two bestselling autobiographies and a film score and carried on performing shows. “Honestly, to go on at the Newcastle Fiesta in 1964 or 65 you needed half a bottle of brandy,” argues Brooks, who admits that in Vinegar Joe, the band she formed with Robert Palmer in the 1970s, taking cocaine was like having a cup of coffee. Elkie Brooks … ‘Text and email mean I can save my voice during the day’ Photograph: Kev Nicholson“By your 30s, staying up drinking and doing drugs and not sleeping aren’t wearing so well,” considers Raitt, who had also got “sucked in” to the rock’n’roll lifestyle.

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