You can tell everybody: Sir Elton John took to the stage Thursday night for the first of three sold-out shows at Dodger Stadium, his final, FINAL U.S. dates. It’s a bit of full-circle perfection, as well as an item for the history books, that L.A. also hosted Elton’s first U.S. show, some 52 years ago at the Troubadour.

The bespectacled Brit’s buzzy American bow in August of 1970 marked the ignition of the Rocket Man’s stellar career, one that’s seen countless massive hits (most co-penned with pal/lyricist supreme Bernie Taupin), astronomical album sales, multiple reinventions, sartorial outrages and myriad moments of stadium godhead (all chronicled lavishly in his 2019 biopic, Rocketman).

The AEG Presents-promoted Farewell Yellow Brick Road tour, which wraps this summer, is the fruit of a decades-long collaborative relationship among the superstar, David Furnish, longtime agent Howard Rose and AEG’s Jay Marciano.

At Dodger Stadium (his first show there since his epochal 1975 appearance), the pop icon reflected on his career-long connection to L.A. and the town’s fundamental role in his success. The audience, singing along with all their might—many through tears—affirmed that this connection remains unbreakable.