Duran Duran’s Roger Taylor Announces Retirement As Health Condition Gets ‘Steadily Worse’

Detailed summary

Duran Duran was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 2022 and has enjoyed a professional resurgence in recent years. This past spring, the band unveiled “ Free to Love ,”…

Duran Duran’s drummer Roger Taylor has announced he’s stepping down from his Grammy-winning pop-rock band and retiring from live performances following a recent tinnitus diagnosis.

In a statement shared on Duran Duran’s official social media pages, Taylor described his exit from the spotlight as “one of the hardest decisions I’ve ever had to make.”

“Playing drums in this band has been the joy of my life, and I’ll never be able to properly thank the fans for the love they’ve shown us over the years,” the 66-year-old said. “But the truth is that my tinnitus has been getting steadily worse, and I’ve reached the point where I must now listen to my body and my doctors.”

He went on to note: “Figuring out the timing of all of this has not been easy, but I’m going out on a real high.”

Tinnitus, often associated with hearing loss, is the perception of sound ― typically described as a ringing or buzzing ― when no external source is present. According to the National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders, tinnitus can present as an acute or chronic health condition and can be debilitating. At present, there is no cure, but there are ways to reduce symptoms.

A native of Birmingham, England, Taylor began drumming at age 12 and played in a number of punk and new wave bands in the late 1970s.

In 1980, he joined Duran Duran, which became one of the premier bands of the decade thanks to era-defining songs like “Girls on Film” and “Hungry Like The Wolf.”

The group was also one of the earliest to adapt to MTV, and the music video for their 1982 single “Rio” ― filmed aboard a yacht in the Caribbean ― is often ranked alongside Michael Jackson’s “Thriller” and Madonna’s “Like a Prayer” as one of the best of all time.

Taylor previously quit Duran Duran during its heyday in 1985, citing burnout from the music industry, only to rejoin in 2001. “I’d been on 1,000 airplanes, but I didn’t know how to get on one as an individual,” he recalled in a 2004 interview with The New York…

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