Gary Numan doesn’t seem to stop. The 68-year-old has been a stalwart in the music industry since his debut in 1976, and when he spoke to me from Palm Springs, he was about to get stuck in once again. “It’s going to be a musical weekend,” he said, preparing to head out to Coachella with his daughters, Persia and Raven, who are also musicians. “But, to be honest, I’ve just done my third tour in the last seven months. So, I’m pretty much done with bands for the time being, and crowds.”

It’s no wonder. The British musician and genre-defining icon has had a tough six months. In November – just before going on stage – he received the tragic news that his brother had died. And in January his wife suffered a “mini-stroke” before doctors found a hole in her heart. After a number of surgeries, she has thankfully been left mostly well again, despite being paralysed down one arm. This is something his fans will likely experience through his music to come.

Numan confessed that hard times have shaped his albums in the past. “A lot of [my music] comes from life,” he explained. “They are very connected.” He went on to recall, for example, losing a child and using that grief to write songs. Numan also chuckled at the notion of writing songs about his beloved dogs who had died in the past, as well.

It’s not always easy for him, though: “Do you know what, I think in some respects, when something is deeply traumatic, like a close relative dying – I remember when my nan and granddad both died, I intended to write about that. I sat down many, many times to write about that, because it was such a deeply upsetting thing. And I didn’t ever do it because I just didn’t seem to come up with anything good enough.”

“When my mum died,” he looked back. “Who I loved very, very much, there’s not… there’s nothing. I didn’t write a single thing about my mum. I haven’t yet. And so I think sometimes, when it’s a really, really important thing, I suffer from a lack of confidence, and I don’t feel that anything I come up with does it justice.”

Naturally, as we all do during traumatic events, Gary Numan seems to be looking back on his life. But his fans recognise him best when he is looking forward. During the 1970s, when he became the poster child for synthesisers and electronica, he spent a lot of time pondering the use of artificial intelligence.

“I do tend, often, to write about where I think humanity is going in the future,” Numan shared. “Based on different things. Way back when, in ’79, I did [an album] called ‘Replicas’ that essentially looked at AI, strangely enough.

“You know, what would happen if a machine took over? How would it view humanity? Would it see us as an ally? Would it see us as an irrelevant nuisance?–Which is what I thought. [That] it would just find clever ways to get rid of us without us knowing, by creating an elite blah, blah, blah, you know?”

Laughing to himself, he went on: “It’s a whole album all about that idea, which bizarrely, has actually come true in a way.”

Numan is still raging against this AI machine this year – live and in-person. In July and August Gary Numan will be playing the Halifax Piece Hall and London’s Crystal Palace Bowl, respectively. There, he’ll once again remind his fans why he has branded the “pioneer of electronic music”.

London’s show, in particular, will be a special occasion for the Hammersmith-born star. “My local gig, so to speak, used to be the Hammersmith Odeon [now the Eventim Apollo],” Numan explained. “So, yeah, I’ve always seen London as like my home city. Before I had any success in the ’70s, we used to drive in and out of London – doing these little pub gigs – and I would always drive past the Hammersmith and say: ‘one day, we’ll be there one day.'”

Fast forward to 2026, and instead of performing at the 4,000-person Eventim Apollo, he’ll be taking on the 15,000-capacity Crystal Palace Bowl. With that number of people in mind, the Cars singer promised to tailor-make the setlist to keep everyone happy–including himself.

“I’m pretty selfish with it, really,” he confessed. “It’s very important to me that when I look down at the set list during the set, and I’ll see what songs next, it’s important I look down at that song I think: ‘Oh, great, I love this.’ I don’t [want to] look down and go, ‘Oh, f**k me, not that one again, I’ve been doing that for nearly 50 years. I’m sick of it.'”

Within that, Numan added, he likes to find some older songs like ‘Metal’, ‘Films’ and ‘Cars’, but not in the way one might expect. Instead of playing them note-for-note, he attempts to ‘modernise’ them, bringing them more in line with songs that were written decades later. He said: “I do try to rework them a little bit. So that they’re not strictly true to the original record. They’re very similar, but I’ve made them heavier.”

In terms of new music, Numan was more-or-less tight-lipped. However, he did reveal: “By the time we get to these shows I hope to be about a good couple of months in the studio, working on new stuff.”

Tickets for Gary Numan’s shows at The Piece Hall and Crystal Palace Bowl are still available now from both official and resale markets. Fans can use the links below to get their fix.

• July 31, 2026 – Halifax, The Piece Hall
• August 06, 2026 – London, Crystal Palace Bowl