Rock and Roll Hall of Famer Darlene Love chatted exclusively about her 2025 “Love for the Holidays” Tour, key to longevity in the entertainment industry, as well as staying fit, and turning 84.
Helen Keller once said: “The best and most beautiful things in the world cannot be seen or even touched — they must be felt with the heart.” This quote applies to veteran artist Darlene Love, who shows no signs of slowing down anytime soon.
Love on her 2025 ‘Love for the Holidays’ Tour
A Grammy award-winning artist, Love just announced her 2025 “Love for the Holidays” Tour, which will kick off on November 28th in Tucson, Arizona, and it will wrap on December 21st in Englewood, New Jersey. “The new tour is moving right along,” she said.
“I told all my people ‘all right, hold on now, that’s enough,” she said with a sweet laugh. “This is my time of the year, and I’ve been blessed to be able to take that as far as I can. I just love the Christmas holidays. I get to sing all my favorite songs, and everybody’s favorite songs too.”
“We do most of the Christmas songs from the Phil Spector album, we do some gospel songs, and of course, we do the ‘oldies.’ The gospel ones are amazing and so are the oldies,” she explained.
Her forthcoming 12-city tour will include New York concert dates in Patchogue and Tarrytown on December 10th and 12th respectively.
“The venues book we early. As soon as I do my shows with them, they already book me for the following year,” she said.
“They want to make sure they get my Christmas show. There are only so many dates that I can do in 2.5 months. That’s about all I can handle during this time,” she noted.
“The venues have to be quick to get me; they can’t wait. I’ve been going to a lot of the same venues that book me for years,” she added.
For a complete list of her 2025 tour dates, check Darlene Love’s Instagram page by clicking here.
‘The Tonight Show’ with Jimmy Fallon
Love hopes to be back on “The Tonight Show,” hosted by Jimmy Fallon, later on this year.
“I did it last year with Little Steven and the Disciples of Soul and Paul Shaffer, and it was a good time,” she said. “I would love to be welcomed back by Jimmy on his show.”
Love reveals the key to longevity
On the key to longevity in the entertainment and music industry, Love said, “You have to take care of your body, and I’ve always done that. Right now, I’ll be 84 in a few weeks, I get up at 5 a.m. five days a week and I do a kickboxing class.”
“The one thing we don’t do as entertainers is rest. We want to make sure when we do lay down that we want to sleep, and hopefully do that without taking some pills that put you to sleep,” she noted.
“So, go to sleep and sleep a minimum of six to eight hours. Your rest is very important because this profession is very grueling… they say our 90-minute set is equivalent of a man working eight hours; that’s the amount of energy we expel,” she explained.
“It is really hard on you but everything we do is for the fans,” she acknowledged.
Love on the importance of staying fit
Love underscored the significance of staying fit at any age. “I have to stay fit! Me and my girlfriends would sometimes walk the Governor Mario M. Cuomo Bridge at times whenever the weather is good,” she said.
“I have pictures of it; that bridge is beautiful and it’s a stunning sight to watch,” she said with a sweet laugh. “You can actually see New York from that bridge.”
“You really do have to keep yourself active. Even when you are not working, you can’t just sit around and do nothing,” she added.
Queen College concert in 2026
On April 25, 2026, Love revealed that she will be performing at the Queen College’s Kupferberg Center for the Performing Arts as part of her “Love Songs” show.
“That’ll be great,” she admitted. “Yes! I cannot wait. The people there are so great. I have five generations of fans that come and see me, believe it or not. The people over at Queens College are smart; they booked me right away.”
“I have great-grandparents, the grandparents, the parents (sons and daughters), their children, and their children’s children coming to my shows,” she noted. “The last few years I even have been getting babies at my concerts with their earphones on.”
“So, I feel so blessed that they can still come and see me year after year,” she added.
Love on turning the ripe age of 84
Particularly impressive about Love is that she will be turning 84 years old in three weeks (on July 26th), even though for her, age is just a number.
“July is a big month for me,” she admitted. “It’s my birthday and ‘Christmas in July.’ Then, I get back into the whole holiday season in September.”
New docu-series to be released in 2026
Love just completed filming a brand new docu-series, which will debut in 2026, which chronicles her extraordinary life and her musical legacy.
“We are just about through with it,” she said. “They hope to have it out by next spring. They are wrapping it up now; I’ve done all my parts for it.”
Stage of her life
On the title of the current chapter of her life, Love said, “Believing in yourself and having faith.”
“You must have faith,” she admitted. “People come to see us, and we have to perform that show for them!”
Love on her signature song ‘Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)’
For Love, her signature song “Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)” is the gift that keeps on giving.
Cher, who sings background vocals on the original recording, describes it as her personal favorite holiday song of all time.
“I don’t like to brag but it is one of the best Christmas songs ever,” Love admitted. “They dubbed me the ‘Christmas Queen’ when I performed it on David Letterman’s show for 28 years. I got everybody beat when it comes to that song.”
Love on Mariah Carey recognizing her as a Holiday Music Queen
“That was so sweet of Mariah,” Love admitted. “It was a little rough there a while back a couple of years ago. Our fans were carrying on about that. You know how our fans are, and they have feelings, and they want to be heard.”
“It just went back and forth, and then, Mariah Carey just beautifully said that she grew up with that song herself, and far as she is concerned, ‘Darlene Love is the Queen of Christmas’,” she elaborated.
“You know what… We can all share that ‘Queen’ title… There is enough to go around,” Love said with a sweet laugh.
Love on covering Brenda Lee’s ‘Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree’ in her live shows
Love noted that she re-added Brenda Lee’s “Rocking’ Around the Christmas Tree” in her live concerts.
“I had to put that one back in the set because Ronnie Spector and I recorded that together,” Love said. “People have been asking for it, so we had to put that one back in the show.”
Love on performing with Rob Thomas on ‘The View’
Love praised Rob Thomas who joined her on her signature song to perform him on “The View” a few years back. “Rob is so great! He is one of my lucky guys,” she said.
Advice for young and aspiring artists
For young and emerging artists, Love said, “You have to be true to yourself. You can’t be anybody else. You have to love it because it’s the hardest business you can ever get in, bar none. You have to put up with people and you have to travel a lot.”
“The hardest part of being an entertainer is traveling because it is so lonely,” she admitted. “You just travel, and you do it for the fans.”
Success
Regarding her definition of the word success, Love said, “Success means something different to me today than it has meant in the past. Success is to be able to continue to do what I do. I really do enjoy that!”
“I told my long-time publicist, Len Evans, ‘whenever I can’t do it anymore, tell me to call it quits,’ and he will say ‘it’s time’ when the time comes. Len always tells me the truth, so I do believe him,” she explained.
Love on her fans
For her fans and supporters, Love expressed, “I have the greatest fans in the world. There is nobody like them! They keep me going and they know I love them.”
“When they come to my shows, they tell me that ‘it feels like I am singing to them in their living rooms,’ and it doesn’t get any better than that,” she noted.
“I hope to be able to see the fans again next year; that’s what my whole life is about… being able to do it again on the next year for as long as I am able to do it 100 percent,” she elaborated.
“Being able to perform for the fans on stage is a fulfilling dream; it is a reward,” she concluded.
To learn more about Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee Darlene Love and her upcoming tour dates, visit her official website and follow her on Facebook and Instagram.
