Britney Spears, whose mental health and possible forcible institutionalization have been a topic of national conversation in recent months, will not perform again until she’s ready—and that may mean never—according to her longtime manager Larry Rudolph.
Rudolph told TMZ that Spears’s postponed Las Vegas residency, Domination, may never happen. Spears was two thirds through rehearsals when, according to Rudolph, her meds stopped working. That in addition to her father Jamie Spears’s health issues with his intestines and colon made for a “perfect storm” of turmoil for Spears.
“As the person who guides her career—based on the information I and all of the professionals who work with her are being told on a need-to-know basis—from what I have gathered it’s clear to me she should not be going back to do this Vegas residency, not in the near future and possibly never again,” Rudolph said.
Rudolph said Spears called him “everyday” last summer, excited to tour; currently, she hasn’t called him in months. “She clearly doesn’t want to perform now,” he said.
Moving forward, Rudolph claims he isn’t pressuring Spears to get back onstage. “I don’t want her to work again ’till she’s ready, physically, mentally and passionately,” he told TMZ. “If that time never comes again, it will never come again. I have no desire or ability to make her work again. I am only here for her when she wants to work. And, if she ever does want to work again, I’m here to tell her if it’s a good idea or a bad idea.”
If Rudolph is sincere, this is great news. Spears has displayed various levels of engagement while performing over the years, and when she doesn’t want to be on stage, she really doesn’t want to be there. You can just tell. She’s stiff, her eyes look dead, it all just seems devoid of joy or any real use. It makes you wonder if there are people such as Rudolph as well as Spears’s conservator father pulling the strings, essentially propping her up on stage because her income, in turn, props them up. It’s not like Spears, a multimillionaire who grossed $34 million in 2017 alone, according to Forbes, is going to be homeless and hungry any time soon. It has long seemed like this woman, who began her career as a child and obviously had no idea what she was getting into, just wants some rest and to spend time at home with her kids. She’s given her fans so much as it is, that if Spears never performed again because she didn’t want to, it would be a positive thing for her and for anyone who cares about her. Perhaps the time has finally come to truly leave Britney alone.