Rock
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For Seether frontman Shaun Morgan, it’s more exciting to be bringing out a new album — The Surface Seems So Far, which drops Friday, Sept. 20 — than it is to be celebrating the band’s 25th anniversary.
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It has been that long since Morgan formed Seether, as Saron Gas, in his native South Africa (bassist Dale Stewart joined in January of 2000 and has remained since). During the interim the group has released nine studio albums and netted 26 top 10 singles on Billboard’s various rock charts, including 10 No. 1 Mainstream Rock Airplay hits with the new album’s first single, “Judas Mind.” Seether was also Billboard’s No. 1 Active Rock Artist and Heritage Rock Artist in 2011, the same year “Country Song” was the top Active Rock song of the year.
“Sometimes it feels like 25 minutes, sometimes it feels like 250 years,” Morgan tells Billboard via Zoom from his home in Nashville — where, he acknowledges with a chuckle, “I’m 45 now, so it’s been a long time and I’m starting to feel it in the bones, all the respective ailments that slowly creep in with age. There’s always that reality check to let you know you’ve been doing it for awhile.
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“I guess for us the most exciting thing is still to be able to do it…at this level and with this kind of enthusiasm and this kind of fan base. Thankfully so far we’ve managed to keep on trucking and keep the band moving forward. That in itself, I think, is the achievement I focus on.
“I’ve toured many, many years with many, many bands that no longer exist, and they were bands I thought were better than us. We’ve certainly weathered some genres and trends and seen some go and return, and we’ve just sort of been trucking away in the background. Somehow we’ve managed to keep ourselves around and be relevant on some level.”
Seether’s continuing connection with its audience isn’t hard to figure out. The music remains a kind of timeless, high-powered brand of heavy rock, steeped in well-established traditions of classic grunge, metal and, occasionally, punk. As a lyricist, meanwhile, Morgan wears his proverbial heart on his sleeve, unafraid to mine dark emotions all the way back to early favorites such as “Fine Again,” “Gasoline” and “Broken,” the worldwide breakthrough single when it was re-recorded with Evanescence’s Amy Lee for 2004’s Disclaimer II album.
“I just try to write what I like to listen to and what I like to play and what makes me feel something on an emotional level,” Morgan explains. “I don’t try to overthink it; I just write what I’m feeling every time we do an album and try and write music that helps me get through situations, or darker days I guess. I try and always represent the music and myself in an honest and real way and be as vulnerable as I can without being trying to give away too much. I try and be as vague as I can, lyrically, so people can apply the songs to how they’re feeling and maybe get something out of it that way.
“So all of that combined would contribute maybe, to the fact we’re still here.”
Fans likely won’t have trouble relating to the 11 tracks on The Surface Seems So Far, either.
Written during an 18-month period during which Morgan’s wife gave birth to their third child, the songs stem from “a lot of existential crisis moments” he was experiencing during the 2020 pandemic lockdown, which came just a few months before the release of Seether’s last album, Si Vis Pacem, Para Bellum.
“Obviously 2020 was a wash, and 2021 and ’22 weren’t much better,” Morgan explains. “I’d been told by the powers that be that I was not a relevant or important person and my livelihood was not important for a very long time.” And while he wasn’t sorry that “I got to sit and be with family and really enjoy being a dad and a husband,” Morgan also faced “moments of self-doubt and the genuine anguish of wondering, ‘OK, what’s next? Is this all that there is? Do I have to find something else I want to do for the rest of my life, where I feel more fulfilled and maybe don’t feel quite so expendable?’ There were many times I thought about quitting, yeah.
“Those were the biggest issues for me in writing this album.”
Those heavy questions can be felt throughout The Surface Seems So Far as Seether — Morgan, Stewart drummer John Humphrey and guitarist Corey Lowery — steam through the leaden dynamics of songs such as “Try to Heal,” “Same Mistakes,” “Semblance of Me,” “Paint the World,” “Dead on the Vine” and “Illusion,” while “Walls Come Down” stands out as a more melodic counterweight.
“It’s funny; this is the first album we’ve done that doesn’t have an acoustic (track) on it, which I didn’t realize until we were done,” Morgan notes. “I wrote about 20 songs and we ended up recording about 13 of them. But there was never really a thought about what I wanted it to sound like. Whenever I start writing for albums it’s sort of a fishing expedition; I don’t know what I’m doing and I have no direction, so I just start writing and the direction reveals itself to me.
“And the most powerful emotions of the past few years for me were certainly rage and anger, and in this particular snapshot of my life most of it was, ‘I need to get rid of this frustration and this anger,’ and that leads to heavier music, obviously.”
The Surface Seems So Far marks Morgan’s third consecutive album as producer, too, a task he first found “daunting” but that he’s grown more comfortable with over time. “There’s only one producer I worked with who I felt the experience was positive and I learned something from, and that was Brendan O’Brien,” who produced Holding Onto Strings Better Left to Fray in 2011 and 2014’s Isolate and Medicate. Morgan explains that, “I came out the other side of those albums with him and thought, ‘OK, I’ve learned enough about songwriting from him. I’ve learned enough about producing from him, the approach of making an album from him, and I’ve learned from the either guys what I DON’T want to do, so lemme give it a shot and see how it works out.’ And because of that these past three albums are actually the first time a high percentage of me is proud of how they sound.”
That said, Morgan doesn’t rule out working with someone else in the future.
“I’m not opposed to it,” he says. “I always had in my mind there would be this trio of albums I’d produce, and they’d all kind of be in a similar vein and have a similar kind of theme or a similar kind of sound, and when the next album comes it’s gonna be a brand new chapter…and maybe have somebody else come in and give me an opinion again from an outsider’s perspective. We’ll see.”
For now Morgan and Seether are excited to be getting back on the road. Dates have just started with Skillet, running into October with some festival stops (Louder Than Life in Louisville, Rocktoberfest in Oceanside, Calif. and Aftershock in Sacramento) and more ahead for 2025. The new album will be fresh, of course, but Morgan predicts that “‘Judas Mind’ will definitely be in the set list, and I might want to play ‘Illusion’ ’cause it’s one of my favorite songs on the album and is on the streaming platforms, so people can know it. You do want to play the songs that fans are there to see, right? So I do want to play all the classics, so to speak, and once the album’s been out a little longer we can start to play more of those songs and get a feel about those from the audience.
“We’re just happy to be getting back on the road, man. We are a touring band, and we haven’t been able to do as much in the last few years, so we’re really ready for this now.”
Linkin Park‘s recent reunion has sparked a lot of complicated feelings and opinions, the latest of which comes from late vocalist Chester Bennington’s mom.
In interviews with Rolling Stone published Thursday (Sept. 19), Susan Eubanks shared that she feels “betrayed” by the entire ordeal, alleging that no one in the band told her that they had plans to reunite, much less that they were adding Dead Sara’s Emily Armstrong as its new lead singer. “They told me that if they were ever going to do something, they would let me know,” she told the publication. “They didn’t let me know, and they probably knew that I wouldn’t going to be very happy. I’m very upset about it.”
Instead, Eubanks says she learned of the news — which Linkin Park announced via livestream Sept. 5 with plans to release a new album, From Zero, and embark on a tour — on Google, after which she tuned in to the stream to find Armstrong singing Bennington’s part in one of the band’s songs. “I’m just going to say it, [Armstrong was] screeching her way through a very high note,” she said, adding that she immediately clicked off and started crying.
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“I feel like they’re trying very hard to erase the past,” Eubanks continued. “They’re performing songs that Chester sang. And I don’t know how the fans are taking it, but I know how I take it. And having [Armstrong] singing my son’s songs is hurtful.”
Eubanks also alleged that guitarist Mike Shinoda used to threaten to replace Bennington with a female vocalist — whose range might be more naturally suited for Linkin Park’s songs — when her son was still alive. “He often put Chester down,” she claimed of Shinoda. “He said Mike told him at rehearsal that, ‘If you decide you’re leaving, we’re going to replace you with a girl.’ And Chester was dumbfounded and hurt.”
Billboard has reached out to Linkin Park’s reps for comment.
Linkin Park’s reunion follows a seven-year hiatus that came after Bennington’s death in 2017. While some fans are happy to see the group back at it again, others took issue with the addition of Armstrong, be it her perceived inability to fill Bennington’s shoes or her past affiliations with Scientologist and convicted rapist Danny Masterson. The latter issue lead Armstrong to release a statement Sept. 6 distancing herself from the That ’70s Show actor, emphasizing that she hasn’t spoken to him since supporting him at a single court date in 2020.
Another person who’s spoken out against Linkin Park’s reunion is Bennington’s son Jaime, who also claims the band didn’t consult him ahead of its reunion and slammed Armstrong’s involvement as “quietly erasing [his] father’s life and legacy in real time.” Later, Jaime said that he’d received abuse online from Linkin Park fans in response to his comments.
For Eubanks, a better way forward would’ve been leaving Linkin Park’s previous work in the past. “Don’t put [Armstrong] out there to sing Chester’s songs and then act like this was always the way it should have been,” she told Rolling Stone. “Now you can just put out new songs. But don’t bother to put out Chester’s songs with Emily singing them.”
After three weeks at No. 2 on the TikTok Billboard Top 50 chart, Surf Curse’s “Disco” rises to No. 1 for the first time, reigning on the tally dated Sept. 21.
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The TikTok Billboard Top 50 is a weekly ranking of the most popular songs on TikTok in the United States based on creations, video views and user engagement. The latest chart reflects activity from Sept. 9-15. Activity on TikTok is not included in Billboard charts except for the TikTok Billboard Top 50.
“Disco” takes over the top spot from Clean Bandit’s Zara Larsson-featuring “Symphony,” which drops to No. 3 after reigning for three weeks.
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The dominant trend sparking the rise of “Disco,” which was initially released in 2019, continues to be a dance challenge. Though it usually features two people, with one leaning in toward the other for a few beats with the other leaning back, and vice versa, the trend has also seen three or more dancers in the same video – and sometimes even just one.
“Disco” concurrently debuts on the Billboard Hot 100 at No. 91, Surf Curse’s first appearance on the ranking. It also lifts 18-17 on Hot Rock & Alternative Songs. In the week ending Sept. 12, it earned 5.4 million official U.S. streams, up 20%, according to Luminate.
Behind “Disco” comes a slew of songs new to the TikTok Billboard Top 50’s top 10, including three debuts. Topping that group: BabyChiefDoit’s “Rollin’,” which bows at No. 2. “Rollin’” marks the Chicago rapper’s first chart appearance, buoyed mostly by lip-synchs set to the song’s “Don’t slip, don’t trip, don’t fall/ Come to the crib and take off your drawers” lyric.
Released in 2023, “Rollin’” has scored strong subsequent streaming gains, leaping 211% to 481,000 listens in the week ending Sept. 12.
STAR BANDZ’s “Bigger Better Badder” starts at No. 4, another rapper making one of her first chart appearances. The similarities to BabyChiefDoit don’t stop there; “Bigger Better Badder” has also risen thanks to lip-synch clips highlighting the song’s “bigger, better, badder” refrain.
In the week ending Sept. 12, “Bigger Better Badder” accumulated 193,000 official U.S. streams, a leap of 353%.
The final top 10 debut of the week is from a veteran artist: Ashanti’s “Rain on Me,” which breaks onto the ranking at No. 5. Where did the 21-year-old song, which peaked at No. 2 on the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart in 2003, come from? Mostly from users posting photos, clips and memes from the long-running Nickelodeon series Henry Danger, which aired for five seasons between 2014 and 2020.
Though the streaming gains of “Rain on Me” are not as substantial as the preceding two songs, it’s nothing to sniff at: 676,000 streams in the week ending Sept. 12, up 15%.
Level’s “Dumb D*#k,” which features Ms. Trill, isn’t a debut, but it’s already in the top 10 in its second week on the TikTok Billboard Top 50, leaping 32-6. Released in 2016, “Dumb D*#k” did not appear on a Billboard chart until its TikTok Billboard Top 50 appearance, thanks to a dance trend.
And then there’s Chappell Roan’s “Casual.” So far, the The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess cut had been a meager presence on the chart; after debuting at No. 44 on the Aug. 17 survey, it returned at No. 48 on Sept. 7 and remained there Sept. 14.
But “Casual” zooms 48-9 on the latest tally, becoming Roan’s first TikTok Billboard Top 50 top 10 (let alone top 40, for that matter). That’s because of a new trend featuring creators uploading photos and video following the prompt of “casual things we did before we started dating”
“Casual” has peaked so far at No. 59 on the Hot 100, coming on the Aug. 24 rankign. It appears at No. 72 on the most recent survey.
See the full TikTok Billboard Top 50 here. You can also tune in each Friday to SiriusXM’s TikTok Radio (channel 4) to hear the premiere of the chart’s top 10 countdown at 3 p.m. ET, with reruns heard throughout the week.
The Eagles paid loving tribute to their late friend and collaborator J.D. Souther on Wednesday (Sept. 18) in a heartfelt message posted just a day after the singer/songwriter/actor died at 78. “We have lost a brother, a friend and a brilliant collaborator, and the world has lost a great songwriter, a pioneer of the Southern California sound that emerged in the 1970s,” the veteran easy rocking band wrote. “J.D. Souther was smart, talented, well-read, and in possession of a wicked sense of humor. He loved a good meal, a good movie, and a good Martini … and he loved dogs, adopting many, over the course of his lifetime.”
The band — whose current lineup includes founding singer/drummer Don Henley, as well as guitarist Joe Walsh, bassist Timothy B. Schmit and guitarist/vocalists Deacon Frey and Vince Gill — continued with an homage to the versatile Souther’s many loves and contributions to their legendary songbook.
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“Born in Detroit and raised in the Texas Panhandle, he was a student of the deep roots of the best American music – from country, to jazz, to classical, as well as ‘Standards’ from the Great American Songbook – and that knowledge and appreciation informed his work,” they wrote. “He was a crucial co-writer on many of our most popular songs, including, ‘The Best of My Love,’ ‘New Kid in Town,’ and ‘Heartache Tonight.’ J.D. also collaborated on many of Don Henley’s solo works, including ‘The Heart of the Matter,’ ‘Little Tin God,’ ‘If Dirt Were Dollars’ and ‘Talking to the Moon.’”
According to a statement on his official website, John David “JD” Souther — also known for his collaborations with Linda Ronstadt, James Taylor, Dan Fogelberg, Bonnie Raitt, Roy Orbison and for his acting roles in My Girl 2 and Postcards From the Edge — died peacefully at his home in New Mexico on Tuesday. Souther’s longtime friendship with Frey resulted in his collaborations on many Eagles songs, including “James Dean” and “Doolin-Dalton,” helping to make Souther — whose voice bore an eerily similar tone to Frey’s — a staple of the 1970s California country-rock scene.
“We mourn his loss and we send our condolences to his family, his friends, and his many fans around the world,” the Eagles added. “He was an extraordinary man and will be greatly missed by many. Adios, old friend. Travel well.”
Former Eagles guitarist/vocalist Don Felder also posted a tribute, writing, “It is with heavy heart to start the day with the news of JD’s passing. The invisible Eagle has left the nest. His writing contribution and vocal contributions to the music industry has been a blessing to the whole world. He will be missed but his songs will live on forever.”
Souther was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2013, but never reached the pinnacle of success with his solo work as the Eagles’ lofty heights, landing his biggest chart success with his 1979 No. 7 Billboard Hot 100 single “You’re Only Lonely.”
Donations in Souther’s honor can be made to the Best Friends Animal Society.
Welcome to history, Green Day. The pop-punk trio celebrated a major career milestone this week when their breakthrough third studio album, 1994’s Dookie, was certified double-diamond. With that honorific, the group’s major label became just the 13th album ever to be RIAA certified for sales of more than 20 million units in the U.S., joining […]
The road goes on forever for Metallica. The veteran rockers announced on Thursday morning (Sept. 19) that their M72 world tour will stretch into a third year when they play 21 North American dates from April-June.
The shows will kick off on April 12 in Las Vegas with a festival gig at the NV Sick New World @ Las Vegas Festival Grounds before a run up north for a two-night stand in Toronto, then back down for a double-down stand at Nissan Stadium in Nashville, a pair of appearances at the Sonic Temple festival in Columbus, OH, followed by stadium shows in Philadelphia, Charlotte, Atlanta, Tampa (their first visit to the city in 15 years) and Houston before winding down with gigs on June 27 and 29 at Empower Field at Mile High in Denver. The run will also include a pair of Bay Area hometown shows on June 20 and 22 that will be their debut gigs at Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara.
Openers on the run will include Pantera, bass player Robert Trujillo’s former band, Suicidal Tendencies, as well as Limp Bizkit and Ice Nine Kills. Two-night tickets for the new No Repeat Weekends and tickets for single-night gigs will go on sale on Sept. 27 at 10 a.m. local time, with a fan presale kicking off on Sept. 23 at 10 a.m. local time; click here for ticketing information.
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The M72 tour kicked off in Amsterdam in 2023 and has played to more than three million fans to date, highlighted by their No Repeat Weekend tradition, in which each night of their two-night stands feature totally different setlists and support acts.
Check out the dates for Metallica’s M72 2025 North American shows below:
April 12 — Las Vegas, NV @ Sick New World @ Las Vegas Festival GroundsApril 19 — Syracuse, NY @ JMA Wireless Dome *April 24 — Toronto, ON @ Rogers Centre *April 26 — Toronto, ON @ Rogers Centre +May 1 — Nashville, TN @ Nissan Stadium *May 3 — Nashville, TN @ Nissan Stadium +May 7 — Blacksburg, VA @ Lane Stadium *May 9 — Columbus, OH @ Sonic Temple @ Historic Crew StadiumMay 11 — Columbus, OH @ Sonic Temple @ Historic Crew StadiumMay 23 — Philadelphia, PA @ Lincoln Financial Field +May 25 — Philadelphia, PA @ Lincoln Financial Field *May 28 — Landover, MD @ Northwest Stadium *May 31 — Charlotte, NC @ Bank of America Stadium *June 3 — Atlanta, GA @ Mercedes-Benz Stadium *June 6 — Tampa, FL @ Raymond James Stadium +June 8 — Tampa, FL @ Raymond James Stadium *June 14 — Houston, TX @ NRG Stadium *June 20 — Santa Clara, CA @ Levi’s Stadium +June 22 — Santa Clara, CA @ Levi’s Stadium *June 27 — Denver, CO @ Empower Field at Mile High +June 29 — Denver, CO @ Empower Field at Mile High *
* Pantera and Suicidal Tendencies support+ Limp Bizkit and Ice Nine Kills support
Just days after the future of the band was thrown into question following singer Perry Farrell‘s on-stage attack on guitarist Dave Navarro, Jane’s Addiction dropped a swoony new song on Wednesday morning (Sept. 18). The moody, ballad, “True Love,” fits firmly in the briefly reunited group’s signature dreamy ballad mode, with lyrics chronicling the first, exciting shoots of passion.
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“When I first felt true love/ I was very young,” Farrell sings over Navarro’s chiming, hypnotic guitar in the nearly four-minute track that taps into the group’s classic shamanic rock vibe. “I tried to describe it to my friends/ You’re floating over something that’s way over your head/ Wading in the waters of true love/ Basking in glory of true love.”
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The release comes three months after the group issued the charging “Imminent Redemption,” single, which marked the first new song from the original band lineup in nearly 35 years. It also comes in the shadow of an ugly scene last Friday in Boston when Farrell, 65, appeared agitated on stage before shoving Navarro and then punching his longtime bandmate in the chest in a shocking scene that led to the cancellation of the reunited lineup’s first tour in 14 years as well as the announcement of an indefinite hiatus.
At press time a spokesperson for the band had not returned Billboard‘s request for information on whether “True Love” was another one-off from the legendarily quarrelsome alt-rock group — which also features drummer Stephen Perkins and bassist Eric Avery — or another preview of a what would be their first new studio album in 34 years.
In the wake of incident in Boston, the band issued an apology to fans, followed by a statement from Navarro, Perkins and Avery citing what they deemed the “mental health difficulties” affecting Farrell, as well as a personal mea culpa from the singer, who called his behavior “inexcusable.” In addition, Navarro apologized to opening acts Love & Rockets and Crawlers on Tuesday, specifically calling out the former band made up of ex members of Bauhaus for the “terrible outcome” of the tour that launched in August and was slated to run through mid-October.
The two new songs appeared to presage a return to form for the 1990s alt-rock group who released two classic studio albums during their short late 1980s-early 1990s run, 1988’s Nothing’s Shocking and 1990’s Ritual de lo Habitual. Jane’s broke up following a farewell tour as part of 1991’s first Lollapalooza festival, with Avery long acting as a hold-out in subsequent reunion tour; he was replaced by Red Hot Chili Pepper’s Flea on a 1997 tour and Martyn LeNoble and Chris Chaney on subsequent outings. The original four members got back together for a 2008 world tour, though Avery split again in 2010 before the release of the band’s fourth studio album, The Great Escape Artist, before returning to the fold again in 2022.
Listen to “True Love” below.
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Linkin Park stormed back onto late-night on Tuesday (Sept. 17) with the TV debut of their intense single “The Emptiness Machine,” marking their first Tonight Show performance with new singer Emily Armstrong. The song from the band’s upcoming first album in seven years, From Zero (Nov. 15), blasted off with singer/guitarist Mike Shinoda on the mic on a set that looked like an ice station on a frozen planet thanks to moodily lit plastic draping surrounding them.
With new drummer Colin Brittain keeping the steady beat, Shinoda urgently sang the song’s pleading chorus, “I let you cut me open/ Just to watch me bleed/ Gave up who I am for who you wanted me to be/ Don’t know why I’m holding what I won’t receive/ Falling for the promise of the emptiness machine.”
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While the performance exploded into a driving dual-guitar grind, Armstrong took center stage and unleashed her howling vocal attack as the stage flickered with colored effects. Trading vocals with Shinoda, Armstrong gripped the mic with both hands, screaming out the chorus amid the strobing lights.
“The Emptiness Machine” debuts at No. 21 on this week’s Hot 100 (dated Sept. 21), marking the nu-metal group’s highest-peaking Hot 100 song in 15 years; their previous highest placement on the chart was the Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen soundtrack single “New Divide,” which reached No. 9 in 2009.
Shinoda also sat down with host Jimmy Fallon to discuss the “euphoric” feeling the band had after the rebooted lineup’s debut performance at the Kia Forum in their native Los Angeles on Sept. 11, which marked the kick-off of their first tour since the death of singer Chester Bennington in 2017. “To be this many years in and to feel, like that genuine adrenaline and excitement and happiness was… there’s nothing like it, man,” said Shinoda of the first date of a six-show arena tune-up for what is expected to be a much larger 2025 tour.
Shinoda also had to laugh at Fallon cueing up an embarrassing video from the comeback L.A. show in which the singer had a major malfunction while performing “Remember the Name” from his side band, Fort Minor. Right after Shinoda sang the line about “50% pain,” he ran into the mic stand and bonked his head.
He also talked about what it’s felt like to put the band back together after the tragic loss of his longtime friend and bandmate Bennington.
“I think the important thing for us is that we never set out to, like, ‘Let’s bring the band back’ or ‘Let’s find a singer,’” Shinoda said of the surprise announcement earlier this month that former Dead Sara vocalist Armstrong would be taking her place on stage next to him for the band’s new iteration. “That was never our intention or our goal… It was almost like this new record… we wrote it, we came up with the music while we were creating the new band. When we started the music we didn’t have a band and it just came together while the music came together.”
Watch Linkin Park on the Tonight Show below.
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Just days after calling off their reunion tour and going on an indefinite hiatus following Jane’s Addiction singer Perry Farrell‘s on-stage attack of Dave Navarro, the band’s guitarist issued an apology to the tour’s opening acts.
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“I would like to personally apologize to Love & Rockets and Crawlers and their crews for such a terrible outcome of what started off as an incredibly magical tour,” Navarro said of the two bands that were opening for Jane’s on the alt-rock group’s reunion tour before it melted down into chaos on Friday night in Boston during a show in which Farrell pushed, then punched Navarro near the end of the headliner’s set.
“Love & Rockets are heroes of mine and I am so grateful I had the opportunity to perform on the same stage as them for as long as I did. It has truly been an honor!” Navarro said in a since-expired Instagram Story on Tuesday (Sept. 17) according to Brooklyn Vegan.
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Love & Rockets — the beloved indie rock band formed by former Bauhaus members singer/guitarist Daniel Ash, bassist/singer David J and drummer Kevin Haskins in 1985 — who had reunited to hit the road with Jane’s, also issued a statement on the scotched tour. “We would have loved to have completed the rest of the dates on the tour with Jane’s Addiction but unfortunately the matter is out of our hands,” they wrote on Instagram. “Information regarding refunds will follow shortly.”
Following the shocking incident, Navarro, drummer Stephen Perkins and bassist Eric Avery issued a joint statement on Instagram on Monday morning apologizing to fans for the disturbing scene and cancellation of the rest of the band’s U.S. tour. “Due to a continuing pattern of behavior and the mental health difficulties of our singer Perry Farrell, we have come to the conclusion that we have no choice but to discontinue the current US tour,” the trio wrote.
“Our concern for his personal health and safety as well as our own has left us no alternative. We hope that he will find the help he needs,” they added. “We deeply regret that we are not able to come through for all our fans who have already bought tickets. We can see no solution that would either ensure a safe environment on stage or reliably allow us to deliver a great performance on a nightly basis.”
Farrell, 65, apologized to his bandmates on Monday in a statement first shared with Billboard. “This weekend has been incredibly difficult and after having the time and space to reflect, it is only right that I apologize to my bandmates, especially Dave Navarro, fans, family and friends for my actions during Friday’s show,” Farrell said of the punch-up during the show at Boston’s Leader Bank Pavilion near the end of a performance of “Ocean Size.”
“Unfortunately, my breaking point resulted in inexcusable behavior, and I take full accountability for how I chose to handle the situation,” Farrell added. In fan video of the moment, an agitated Farrell is seen lunging at Navarro and throwing a shoulder into his bandmate, then punching the shocked-looking guitarist in the chest before the men are separated and Farrell is dragged off stage.
A day after the onstage meltdown, Farrell’s wife, Etty Lau Farrell, issued a statement in which she tried to provide context and background on what precipitated the incident. “Clearly there had been a lot of tension and animosity between the members.. the magic that made the band so dynamic. Well, the dynamite was lit,” she wrote on Instagram. “Perry’s frustration had been mounting, night after night, he felt that the stage volume had been extremely loud and his voice was being drowned out by the band. Perry had been suffering from tinnitus and a sore throat every night. But when the audience in the first row, started complaining up to Perry cussing at him that the band was planning too loud and that they couldn’t hear him, Perry lost it.”
She also said that after the punch, bassist Avery “put Perry in a headlock and punched him in the stomach three times … Perry was a crazed beast for the next half an hour — he finally did not calm down, but did breakdown and cried and cried. Eric, well he either didn’t understand what descalation meant or took advantage of the situation and got in a few cheap shots on Perry.”
Avery has been an on-and-off presence in the band’s lineup over the past 25 years, re-joining and leaving the band several times before returning in 2022 and taking part in what was slated to be the reunited band’s first North American tour featuring all four original members in 14 years. The outing launched in early August and was scheduled to run through mid-October.
Father John Misty has announced a run of dates in the U.K. for April 2025.
The dates come following the news of his upcoming sixth studio album Mahashmashana, set for release on November 22 via Sub Pop and Bella Union (UK & Europe).
Father John Misty – real name Josh Tillman – will perform in Edinburgh, Manchester, Brighton and London, with the final show to be held at the capital’s historic Royal Albert Hall on April 14. See the full tour dates below; tickets go on sale on September 27.
Misty also shared a new song “Screamland” which features Low’s Alan Spearhawk on guitar. The album was produced by Tillman and Drew Erickson, with executive production from frequent collaborator Jonathan Wilson. Watch the music video below.
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The news follows the release of Misty’s Greatish Hits: I Followed My Dreams and My Dreams Said to Crawl earlier this summer, a collection of back catalogue songs including “Real Love Baby”, his biggest hit on streaming.
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The collection also included “I Guess Time Makes Fools of Us All”, an eight-minute jazz-influenced song that will also appear on Mahashmashana.
Misty last released a studio album in 2022 with Chloë and The Next 20th Century which landed at No.2 on the Official U.K. Albums Chart and at No.28 on the Billboard 200.
The Los Angeles-based musician is currently on tour supporting country star Kacey Musgraves in the US. Earlier this year, he was a special guest of Lana Del Rey at her headline appearance at London’s Hyde Park.
Father John 2025 U.K. & Europe Tour Dates:
3 April – Sentrum Scene, Oslo, Norway4 April – Fållan, Stockholm, Sweden5 April – Opera House, Copenhagen, Denmark6 April – Huxley’s, Berlin, Germany8 April – La Cigale, Paris, France9 April – Ancienne Belgique, Brussels, Belgium10 April – TivoliVredenburg, Utrecht, Netherlands12 April – Usher Hall, Edinburgh, UK13 April – O2 Apollo, Manchester, UK14 April – Brighton Dome, Brighton, UK15 April – Royal Albert Hall London, UK
For more information and to purchase tickets, visit Father John Misty’s official website.