Neil Young announced Wednesday that the remaining dates on the tour he has been doing with his longtime backing group Crazy Horse are being canceled, due to illness hitting “a couple of us” since they last performed in May. He did not specify whether he was among those stricken.
The cancellations are for shows as far as three months out from now. Affected are the seven Canadian shows Young had lined up in July, plus three U.S. shows he had scheduled for late September, at the Hollywood Bowl, southern California’s Eddie Vedder-driven Ohana Fest and Kentucky’s Bourbon & Beyond Festival.
Young said in a statement on his website that the unnamed band members had come down ill at some point after their last gig, which took place more than a month ago, on May 22 at Pine Knob Music Theatre in Clarkston, Michigan.
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He did not say exactly how long their timeout would be, but it quickly became clear from the web pages of the upcoming festivals that the “big unplanned break” will indeed extend through the end of September. A page for Young’s concert at the Hollywood Bowl Sept. 29 now leads to an error message, and the Bowl now shows as being dark on that date on the official venue calendar. The website for the Ohaha Festival in Dana Point now lists “TBA” in place of the Saturday night headlining slot that Young held, and a festival rep confirmed they are seeking a replacement.
“The Love Earth Tour has been a great experience for us so far,” Young’s message to fans began. “GREAT AUDIENCES AND MUSIC. WE HAVE HAD A BLAST!”
He continued, “When a couple of us got sick after Detroit’s Pine Knob, we had to stop. We are still not fully recovered, so sadly our great tour will have a big unplanned break. We will try to play some of the dates we miss as time passes when we are ready to rock again! We know many of you made travel plans and we apologize for the inconvenience. Thanks for your understanding and patience.”
Young concluded, “Health is # 1…. We want to stay and do more shows and more albums for you…. and for for us…. With love and thanks to all of you from Crazy Horse….. Neil, Micah, Ralph and Billy… Love Earth.”
Young’s statement seemed to leave open the possibility that tickets might remain valid for some dates at a rescheduled time, but there was nothing firm on that. A rep for Young said they were awaiting word on further information for ticketholders.
While Young did not specify which bandmembers are ill, at a concert in New York last month, Crazy Horse’s rhythm section —bassist Billy Talbot and drummer Ralph Molina, both 80 —seemed to be having challenges keeping up with the physical demands of the two-hour set, with many of the songs being played at slower tempos than their studio recordings.
As of this writing, Ticketmaster still has tickets up for sale for the Hollywood Bowl show, but the disappearance of the event from multiple pages on the Bowl website seems to confirm it has gone away with the other shows. No one will be blaming these cancellations on poor sales, at least: A seating chart still up for the Bowl concert shows seats only remaining in the very back.
A rep for Ohana Fest pointed to a statement on social media that reads: “We are sad to announce that Neil Young with Crazy Horse will no longer be performing at Ohana Festival 2024. Please stay tuned for a lineup update coming as soon as possible; in the meantime, we are wishing the band a speedy recovery.” Bourbon & Beyond posted a similar message saying to “stay tuned for a replacement announcement.”
Young fans saddened by the cancellations can at least console themselves with an eagerly awaited album release coming on Friday, “Early Daze,” a collection of previously unreleased recordings that Young made with Crazy Horse in 1969.
Additional reporting by Jem Aswad.
