Green Day have been forced to cancel all touring plans as frontman Billie Joe Armstrong continues to receive treatment for his addiction issues.
He entered rehab after an onstage meltdown in September, partly attributed to the workload involved with recording three albums in one go.
As a result of the cancellations Green Day will release the last part of their trilogy, Tre, on December 11 instead of January 15. Dos is due out on November 13 while Uno arrived last month.
Bassist Mike Dirnt says: “Obviously the timing isn’t ideal. But Bille Joe’s wellbeing is our main concern. We feel bad we have to delay our tour, so to make up for it we wanted to give our fans the music earlier than planned.”
Drummer Tre Cool adds: “If we couldn’t be there to play it for you live, the least we could do was give you the next best thing.”
The band’s north American tour was due to run through the autumn, with further live date scheduled in January and February.
But the band report “Billie Joe is doing well” and they’ve sent a message of thanks to fans for all their support.
Dirnt recently told BBC Radio 1 the three-record project was “a tremendous undertaking.” He added: “With hindsight, we didn’t take our nose out of the book for a long time. It catches up with you. We definitely jumped off a moving train.”
Meanwhile, Metallica have released a video clip of their appearance at the Voodoo Music Experience, which they played in Green Day’s place.
Frontman James Hetfield asked the audience: “Are you still here? Why? You’re hoping Green Day is going to show up, right? They’re getting help – they’re getting it sorted out. Hopefully they get it together, because the world needs them. I think so.”
They started up a cover version of American Idiot, allowing the crowd to sing the words, before giving up with Hetfield admitting they hadn’t had time to learn the song.
-Classic Rock Magazine
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