Neil Young announced on Wednesday that he had canceled the remaining concerts on his tour with his longtime support band, Crazy Horse, due to illness that had affected “Two of Us” since their last concert in May. It was not specified whether he was among those injured.
Cancellations are for shows up to three months from now. Young’s seven Canadian shows in July were affected, as well as three U.S. shows scheduled for late September, at the Hollywood Bowl, Southern California’s Eddie Vedder-led Ohana Fest, and Kentucky’s Bourbon & Beyond Festival.
Young said in a Statement on their website The unnamed band members fell ill sometime after their last concert, which took place more than a month ago, on May 22 at Pine Knob Music Theater in Clarkston, Michigan.
He did not say exactly how long the hiatus would last, but it soon became clear from the upcoming festivals’ web pages that the “unplanned big break” would indeed extend until the end of September. The page for Young’s concert at the Hollywood Bowl on September 29 now produces an error message, and the Bowl now appears as dark on that date on the venue’s official calendar. The website for Dana Point’s Oaha Festival now lists “TBA” instead of Young’s Saturday night main venue, and a festival representative confirmed they are looking for a replacement.
“The Love Earth Tour has been an amazing experience for us so far,” Young’s message to fans began. “Great crowd and music. We had a blast!”
He continued, “When two of us got sick after Pine Knob in Detroit, we had to take a hiatus. We still haven’t fully recovered, so it’s unfortunate that our amazing tour will include a big unplanned break. We’ll try to play some of the dates we missed over time when we’re ready to play music.” Rock again! We know that many of you have planned to travel and we apologize for the inconvenience. Thank you for your understanding and patience.
“Health is No. 1,” Young concluded. We want to stay and bring you more shows and more albums…. And for us…. With love and thanks to all of you from Crazy Horse…..Neil, Micah, Ralph and Billy…Love the Earth.”
Young’s statement seemed to leave open the possibility that tickets would still be valid for some dates at a rescheduled time, but nothing was confirmed on that matter. A rep for Young said they are awaiting word on more information for ticket holders.
As of this writing, Ticketmaster still has tickets for the Hollywood Bowl show on sale, but the event’s disappearance from multiple pages on the Bowl’s website seems to confirm that it’s gone along with the other shows. No one is blaming these cancellations on poor sales, at least: The still-existing seating chart for the Bowl shows only seats remaining in the back.
A representative for Ohana Fest pointed to a statement on social media that read: “We are sad to announce that Neil Young and Crazy Horse will no longer be performing at Ohana Fest 2024. Please stay tuned for the lineup to be updated as soon as possible; In the meantime, we wish the band a speedy recovery. Bourbon & Beyond posted a similar message saying, “Stay tuned for a replacement announcement.”
Young fans saddened by the cancellations can at least console themselves with Friday’s release of the long-awaited album, Early Daze, a collection of previously unreleased recordings Young made with Crazy Horse in 1969.
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