After Half Of A Century Touring, Devo Is Retiring

The American new wave band, Devo, has announced their retirement from touring.

Formed in 1973 in Akron, Ohio, the group that owned the 1980 classic “Whip It” toured for more than a decade and is now retiring from the road. Devo’s co-founders, Mark Mothersbaugh and Gerald Casale, recently had an interview with The Guardian where they spoke about the decision they’ve made. Casale said:

“Do you let go and move on to the next thing? You want change, otherwise you’re stale, but you don’t want to be contrived.”

He then admitted:

“I’m in denial.
“Because I love performing and I’ll hate to see it go. It was part of Devo’s DNA. But we did as well as we could, for as long as we could.”

Meanwhile, Devo has their ongoing tour, Celebrating 50 Years of De-Evolution, with dates set through December. Although, the rockers did not confirm the final date yet. Mothersbaugh joked:

“I’m looking forward to 2073.
“We’ll play 100th anniversary Devo shows and then maybe retire.”

More recently, Devo is releasing a box set, Art Devo 1973-1977, to come out in September which features mostly rare and unreleased material. Additionally, a documentary about the band is currently in the works.

Talking about the possibility of their Rock & Roll Hall of Fame induction, for which Devo has been nominated three times already, Mothersbaugh previously said to Consequence in 2022:

“We were excited about it.
“It’s a wonderful honor. And it’s nice to be recognized for things you did that you think you work really hard on and you put a lot of time and effort in it. And for somebody else to acknowledge that and to say it has some sort of value is nice.”