Dave Stewart believes it's "too late" for a Eurythmics reunion.

The 74-year-old guitarist and producer has made no secret of his desire to reunite the synth-pop duo with chart-topping singer Annie Lennox, 71, but he has admitted their contact has "fizzled out" over the past couple of years.

He told Spin: "I would have done it in a flash, but Annie always turned them all down.

"I really do think that when you have songs that mean a lot to people, and you perform them live, and you can actually see people in front of you emotionally changing, whether they're singing the song or they're looking at the person they're with or whatever, you can see it having an effect. Obviously, music itself has a massive effect, but I wish we did play. Obviously, we're a duo. Tears for Fears didn't play for ages, but then the last few years have been playing live. Both of them probably went, 'What are we doing?'"

When it was suggested that there's still time for Annie to change her mind, Dave cast doubt, insisting a full show would be "incredibly demanding".

He replied: "I don't think so.

"Also, Eurythmics songs are incredibly hard to sing, especially for an hour and three quarters or two hours. She did something not long ago, but she only did about four or five songs, and then she had guests. It's incredibly demanding. It didn't used to be. We could have done it for like 25 years, one every three years or something. But now, I think it's too late."

Asked if they are still in regular contact, he said: "Not so much now, because she lives in Los Angeles, and I live between Nashville and this studio compound I have in the Bahamas.

"We used to exchange emails and talk quite a bit, but the last two years it fizzled out a bit. I think she's finding anything to do with Eurythmics in the past. We've never done anything that normal acts do when they've been through all of this stuff and reached a certain age, whether it's a documentary or playing shows."

The Sweet Dreams (Are Made Of This) hitmakers haven't been out on a tour together since 1999's Peace tour.

However, they have reunited a handful of times since then. The duo last shared a stage at the 2022 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremony, performing a trio of Eurythmics hits after being inducted by U2's The Edge.