Montrealer Leonard Cohen performs to sell-out crowds wherever he goes. But the folk legend is getting a bit old for the road and will soon take a break from touring.
He announced the "final four North American dates" on his tour. This does mean, however, that he is hanging up his hat and retiring. Cohen will head back into the studio in 2011.
Four additional shows were added, one in Honolulu, Hawaii (December 4), one in Portland, Oregon (December 8) and a two-night run in the Colosseum at Caesar’s Palace in Las Vegas on December 10-11.
Cohen returned to touring out of necessity in mid-2000. He discovered he had been ripped off by his ex-manager and a lawyer accomplice while he was reflecting at a Buddhist monastery in California. The scammers wiped out most of his savings so he went back to work to earn enough money to retire.
He took it all in stride and maintained a very Zen attitude about the whole debacle. He told Maclean’s magazine in 2005: "This has propelled us (he and girlfriend Anjani Thomas) into incessant work… it’s one of the best albums I’ve heard".