Legendary rockers Aerosmith have been forced to cancel a handful of remaining tour dates in South America due to urgent concerns over singer Steven Tyler’s health, announced overnight on his personal Twitter account.
As Rolling Stone reports, Tyler has had to be taken in for immediate care, although he insists the condition isn’t life-threatening, but could be career-threatening if not properly attended to.
“Please not to worry…” he begins. “I am not in a life threatening condition, but I need to deal with this right away, and get some rest and medical care immediately in order to sustain and maintain my future performances.
“I promise I’ll be back,” Tyler adds. “Unfortunately, health does not wait and it’s something even I can’t schedule around our shows. As they say, ‘We humans make plans, and God laughs.’ I love you all and will be back with you soon.”
Shows in Brazil, Chile, Argentina and Mexico have been affected, and a representative for the band declined to comment further to Rolling Stone.
It’s just another health concern for Aerosmith following the hospitalisation of guitarist Joe Perry during a tour with his super-group Hollywood Vampires that saw him collapse onstage during a performance in New York, but he has apparently recovered fully.
The South American dates were originally intended to be the final stop on a “farewell tour”, but the band later backtracked on that idea, feeling like they may just have enough left in the tank to carry on.
“We thought it was gonna be a good idea when we first started plotting the European run”, Joe Perry said earlier this year, when discussing the intended retirement.
“We’re gonna do South America and the States for five months and we thought ‘well, we’re getting near the end here, we don’t know when the tour is gonna end but we know there’ll be a last gig of this tour. We all have lives outside of the band. We grew up together, went from being kids in the apartment to a long and storied career, so we thought ‘it’s time.’
“Then we were in South America doing interviews and we couldn’t fucking say it, that there was gonna be a last gig. We were looking at each other going ‘really? Are we really gonna say this is the farewell tour?’ So we kinda changed our minds.
“Will the band be together in a year? We’ll do everything we can to make sure it is but God may have other plans. Judging by how he’s treated us over the last 48 years I’d like to think he’s gonna let us see 50 but you can’t guarantee that.”
We can only hope that God and anyone else involves lets Steven back onstage pretty soon. Until then, you can check out Tyler & Co. playing South America just a week ago as Aerosmith played Rock In Rio.
