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While their music may be timeless their bodies and their ability to perform clearly is not. There comes a time in everyone's career when you simply cannot perform at the expected or acceptable level any longer indicating it is time to retire. For professional athletes this epiphany of obsolescence comes when your body simply breaks down to the point at which you can't perform the amazing feats you once could. Helped along on this realization is the fact that you are competing against an ever increasingly younger group of professionals aiming to unseat you in your role. For rock superstars this epiphany seems to be less obvious and come at a much later age.

There is no denying the contributions that super groups like the Beatles and Rolling Stones have made to the music industry and to popular culture. Their music is still as popular and relevant today as it was forty years ago. Fortunately for these music professionals their early recordings can be digitally re-mastered and re-released in greatest hits compilations indefinitely. Their devoted fans will continue to eat up their works and pass them on to younger generations for years to come. What is unfortunate is that no matter how much technology they integrate with their stage shows; it will never be able to compensate for their advancing age.

Most respectable professionals have the foresight and dignity to know when to retire. In order to preserve your legacy and your achievements during the height of your career it is important to go out while you are on top. Or at the very least go out before you make your once grand display of talent look like a freakish side show. However, most of the rock superstars of today seem to have either over estimated their ability to continue playing or are simply far more concerned with their income than they are about their legacy.

Paul McCartney is a shining example of how to conduct yourself as a respectable rock legend. Despite ever increasing pressure he has not bowed to the demands of touring again as a Beatle. While his career is not dead, his appearances and performances have taken on the role of an elder statesmen or scholar who is imparting the wisdom of his age on to younger generations. Gone are the grand and extravagant stadium concerts, replaced with more personal venues playing to smaller crowds at a pace that suites a man of his age. The winding down of his career to something more manageable for someone his age is the best example of how to handle the aging

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