Pearl Jam Lose Neil Young At Festival

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Neil Young fans might be disappointed with his latest announcement.

Neil Young calls off remainder of the tour

Young recently announced on Wednesday that the remaining dates on the tour he has been doing with his longtime backing group Crazy Horse have been called off due to illness hitting “a couple of us” since they last performed in May. However, he did not specify whether he was among those ill.

It has come to light that the cancellations are for shows as far as three months out from now. The seven Canadian shows Young had lined up in July have been affected and three U.S. shows he had scheduled for late September, at the Hollywood Bowl, southern California’s Eddie Vedder and Pearl Jam-driven Ohana Fest and Kentucky’s Bourbon & Beyond Festival.

Young, who previously unearthed rare Pearl Jam songs, 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.

He did not reveal how long their timeout would be, but it quickly became clear from the web pages of the upcoming festivals that the “big unplanned break” would indeed extend through the end of September.

A page for Young’s concert at the Hollywood Bowl September 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 keep the possibility intact that the tickets might remain valid for some dates at a rescheduled time. However, there was nothing firm on that. A rep for Young stated that they were awaiting word on further information for ticket holders.

Young did not specify which bandmembers are ill but 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.

Young fans are quite upset by the cancellations but they can at least console themselves with a highly-anticipated album release coming on Friday, “Early Daze,” a collection of previously unreleased recordings that Young made with Crazy Horse in 1969.