Neil Diamond talks about residency rumors at Caesars Palace
By Robin Leach
Neil Diamond walks the red carpet at the 2011 Billboard Music Awards at MGM Grand Garden Arena on May 22, 2011.
Photo: Glenn Pinkerton/Las Vegas News Bureau
For a year now, rumors — with some substantial sources involved — have floated that superstar singer Neil Diamond was considering a short residency run at The Colosseum in Caesars Palace, joining current headliners Celine Dion, Sir Elton John and Rod Stewart.
Last night on the red carpet for the 2011 Billboard Music Awards at MGM Grand Garden Arena, where he closed the show with ”Sweet Caroline” and ”America” after receiving Billboard’s Icon Award, Neil told me, ”Las Vegas is The Party Capital of the World, and I want to be in on it. So make me an offer!”
I asked him if with all of his world touring, he’d have the slightest interest in settling down here for an 8-week run a year like his friend Rod. His reply?
Neil Diamond/Christopher Rauschnot @24kMedia on Twitter – from YouTube.com
”I’m definitely coming to see his show. Yeah, of course there’s an interest. I go out on tour and perform because that’s where the audience is. But I could probably do 8 weeks. I hope so. I love playing Vegas.
”I’m resting at the moment between legs of a world tour. We just got back from South Africa. Next week, it’s
Europe, and we finish somewhere in the States. Then I’ll go back in the studio and write, hopefully make a new record, and then do it all over again.
”But I’d love to come to Vegas.”