During many of these shows, John performed three or four songs from Sleeping with the Past — an unusual move since the new album would not be released until August, and thus audiences were hearing this material for the first time.
Also new to the production was a two-minute show intro, conceived and recorded by Davey Johnstone and Guy Babylon, which played as the band walked out on to the stage, using an alternate arrangement of "Bennie and the Jets" to introduce the show's first song.
This technique would be used on several subsequent tours and change depending on what song was chosen as the set opener.
[1] By the time this final leg of the tour would end, John and his band, now with Charlie Morgan on drums, had been on the road almost constantly for two full years.
The set list at these US shows featured the premiere of "Made for Me", one of four new songs he had recorded for his then-upcoming box set, To Be Continued... Two months later, John checked himself in to a Chicago-area hospital for addiction treatment and would not tour again for two years.