EP headliners Kings of Leon cancel UK and European tour after 'freak accident'
Electric Picnic headliners Kings of Leon have been forced to cancel their forthcoming UK and European shows after frontman Caleb Followill injured his foot in a "freak accident".
According to a statement from the band, the singer has a "serious" shattered heel injury and needed "a significant emergency surgery that will prevent him from travelling and performing".
"The anticipated recovery process is expected to take 8 weeks, under strict guidance of expert orthopedic specialists. The band regrets to report that they will need to cancel all upcoming UK and European festival headline shows in June and July of this year," the Grammy Award winners said.
Kings of Leon were set to kick off their European tour in Paris on June 10, and the run of 10 shows would have concluded on July 12 in Portugal.
Despite being forced to cancel a slew of upcoming shows, the Use Somebody rockers are still expected to perform at Electric Picnic in Co Laois in late August.
Followill took to social media soon after the band announced that they were cancelling their upcoming tour dates to confirm that he had undergone emergency surgery after suffering a "gnarly" foot injury while playing with his children.
"Hello to everyone out there, especially to our European fans that are preparing to come see us this summer," Followill said in a video posted to Instagram on Wednesday.
"Unfortunately, I regret to inform you that those shows will have to be cancelled due to a freak accident that happened the other day – broke my foot pretty bad, just playing with my kids, it's pretty gnarly, I'll spare [you] all the details.
"But we're fortunate enough to have some great doctors here in Nashville that gave me emergency surgery, and I'm on the mend, but they've told me that I can't be on my feet or travelling or anything for the next eight weeks or so.
"And that's a big bummer, man, we were so excited, we've been preparing for this tour for a long time.
"We've been preparing for a lot of things, we've been in the studio recording, we have a bunch of new songs, we were going to debut a few of them on this run.
"We had a lot of exciting things planned, and now we're just going to have to pivot and find a new way to continue the work that we've started.
"I'm very excited when we do get to show you the stuff that we're doing, and in the meantime, we're gonna do whatever work we can while I have these limitations."
Followill later showed the band's followers his leg in a cast, saying the situation was "no fun."
"I know this isn't the message that anyone wants to hear and it's certainly not the message that I want to be sending," he said.
"But it's gonna be alright. Everything's gonna be good and hopefully we'll see y'all soon."
Kings of Leon are set to make their Electric Picnic debut this summer when they headline the Stradbally festival alongside Wicklow singer Hozier, US pop star Chappell Roan and chart-topping DJ Fatboy Slim.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Irish Daily Mirror
14 hours ago
- Irish Daily Mirror
Anthem Vinyl offering 'interesting new approach' to vinyl pressing for artists
Newly launched Anthem Vinyl, Ireland's only vinyl pressing plant, are offering an 'interesting new approach' to vinyl pressing for Irish artists. Born out of a shared love for vinyl and a deep respect for its craft, Anthem Vinyl was founded in 2024 by a team of passionate music industry and business professionals. Located just 30 minutes from Dublin, in Clane, County Kildare, the new pressing plant is embracing new technology, sustainability, and accessibility, ensuring that artists and fans can experience vinyl at its best. 'Obviously, a lot of Irish artists would be keen to have their physical music produced here in Ireland,' Anthem Vinyl founder Brian Kenny told the Irish Mirror. 'It's also very accessible, they can come here, visit the plant. We offer that anyone who's getting records pressed can come in and see it getting pressed, shoot some social content. 'We're building out a media room here where, if they want to shoot their own social media content in the room, listen to it on the Hi Fi, and sign copies of it.' Brian says by pressing locally in Ireland, clients benefit from faster lead times and lower shipping costs thanks to Ireland's unique position within the EU. 'It's that unique access that we have to the global market. Even though we will do everything we can to support Irish acts, we don't want to create the impression we're only supporting Irish acts either.' 'Because the Irish industry is not big enough to sustain this business or any pressing plant,' he added. 'It's probably mostly led by artists not having to go far afield, Irish in particular, to get their pressings. 'But we also think we can tick a box for UK and European-based artists to get their product out to the States in particular, or UK artists to get their products into mainland Europe.' With the addition of traditional pressing services, Anthem has also introduced Smart Vinyl, a forward-thinking innovation that pairs physical records with the digital world. 'It's a very early product. Declan O'Rourke's album was done; he's an early adopter of it,' he shared. 'It gives a great new level of engagement between an artist and a fan. That they have this content that's utterly unique to that particular album, that they bought that vinyl record. 'Then the artist, in turn, can have visibility of fans that are buying records and binder releases. And there's opportunities there for early concert ticket access or early new release access to fans that are showing loyalties to them. It's a very interesting kind of new approach to it.'
The Irish Sun
20 hours ago
- The Irish Sun
Virgin Media star Katja Mia reveals link to 80s music superstar after ‘legendary' interview on The Six O'Clock Show
LEGENDARY musician Lionel Richie made a brief appearance on The Six O'Clock Show tonight. The music icon is currently in Ireland for his European headline tour Say Hello To The Hits. 2 Katja Mia interviewed Lionel Richie on The Six O'Clock Show tonight Credit: Instagram 2 Katja shared her heart warming link to Lionel with viewers and the music superstar Credit: Instagram travelled up to Belfast to chat with However, before showing her interview, Katja's co-host Brian Dowling gushed: "I actually can't believe you got to meet Lionel Richie in the flesh. What was he actually like in person?" Katja then revealed to her co-host that she was able to have an easy start to her chat as she had a sweet link to the music star. She explained: "He was so genuine, came in smiling, but I told him my brother was named after him and the rest was history." read more on Katja Mia Lionel and Katja weren't the only ones with a connection as the singer expressed his love of Irish crowds at his concerts. He said: "Everyone is a character. Thank God everyone has decided they want to become a singer, because when they come to the show and sing louder than anybody I ever seen in my life. "I think they go to the pub first before they come to the show to then after the show, go to the pub." The 75-year-old explained that he and his touring band take a lot of joy from the laid back nature of performing for an Irish audience. Most read in News TV He explained: "There's a casual, 'We don't care', approach to Ireland. Like if we hit the right note, we are fine. And if we don't hit the right note... we're fine. "It's just loud strong and wrong, it's just great. And they own it, how they can possibly be that happy throughout a whole show... I just don't know." Katja Mia left 'shaking' after creepy gym experience Ahead of her big interview with the star, Katja The 29-year-old wrote: "What the f*** is my life, I'm about to interview Lionel Richie." Sharing a short clip of herself and the music producer hitting it off, Katja said: "What a legend. "I told him my brother was named after him and the rest was history lads." THE ONLY ONE Katja then shared a series of snaps of her looking absolutely thrilled beside Lionel in the indoor stadium. The influencer stunned in a pair of stylish black leather-look jeans, an oversized denim jacket and a pair of black boots. While Lionel looked dapper in khaki green cargo trousers, a grey bomber jacket and a black t-shirt. Katja captioned her post: "Lionel, my new bestie @lionelrichie!!! Interview coming up on The Six O'Clock Show tomorrow."
Irish Daily Mirror
a day ago
- Irish Daily Mirror
Taylor Swift makes major announcement about her music in emotional statement
Taylor Swift has shared a major announcement about her music with her fans. The singer-songwriter issued an emotional statement today describing the news as her "greatest dream come true," whilst thanking her fanbase for their support. Taylor, 35, has shared that she now owns "all of the music" that she's ever made, including unreleased songs. It comes following years of her releasing re-recorded versions of albums from earlier in her career following a dispute over her back catalogue, which has previously made headlines. The Grammy Award winner also teased in the message on her website that re-recorded versions of her debut album Taylor Swift, from 2006, and Reputation, which came out in 2017, could still be released. She suggested that will be "when the time is right" and said they will be a "celebration". It comes after the superstar brought her record-breaking Eras Tour to Ireland last June, playing to hundreds of thousands of fans during a three-night sting in Dublin's Aviva Stadium. Sharing the news today, Taylor told fans: "All of the music I've ever made ... now belongs ... to me." She said it includes all her music videos, concert films, album art and photography, and unreleased songs. She added: "The memories. The magic. The madness. Every single era. My entire life's work." She said: "I'm trying to gather my thoughts into something coherent, but right now my mind is just a slidehow. A flashback sequence of all the times I daydreamed about, wished for, and pined away for a chance to get to tell you this news. "All the times I was this close, reaching out for it, only for it to fall through. I almost stopped thinking it could ever happen, after 20 years of having the carrot dangled and then yanked away. But that's all in the past now. I've been bursting into tears of joy at random intervals ever since I found out that this is really happening." Taylor added: "To say this is my greatest dream come true is actually being pretty reserved about it." She said that fans know how "important" it has been to her, "so much so" that she's released re-recorded versions of four albums. She continued: "The passionate support you showed those albums and the success story you turned the Eras Tour into is why I was able to buy back my music. I can't thank you enough for helping to reunite me with this art that I have dedicated my life to, but have never owned until now." The artist said: "All I've ever wanted was the opportunity to work hard enough to be able to one day purchase my music outright with no strings attached, no partnership, with full autonomy. I will be forever grateful to everyone at Shamrock Capital for being the first people to ever offer this to me." Taylor said it had been a "business deal" to the company - who are understood to have most recently owned her masters - but she felt as though they "saw it for what it was" to her. She explained in the statement: "My memories and my sweat and my handwriting and my decades of dreams." She also shared an update on Reputation (Taylor's Version), which fans have been eagerly awaiting the release of. Taylor said she hasn't "even re-recorded a quarter of it" yet. She didn't rule out finishing the new version though. Taylor said that album was "so specific" to a particular time in her life, adding that she "kept hitting a stopping point" when she tried to remake it. She said: "All that defiance, that longing to be understood while feeling purposely misunderstood, that desperate hope, that shame-born snarl and mischief." She shared: "To be perfectly honest, it's the one album in those first 6 that I thought couldn't be improved upon by redoing it." Taylor said that she "kept putting it off" but suggested that there "will be a time," if fans want it, for the unreleased Vault tracks "to hatch". Taylor added: "I've already completely re-recorded my entire debut album, and I really love how it sounds now. Those 2 albums can still have their moments to re-emerge when the time is right, if that would be something you guys would be excited about". She said it wouldn't be from a "place of sadness and longing" though now, with it instead "a celebration now". She concluded by writing: "I'm extremely heartened by the conversations this saga has reignited within my industry among artists and fans. Every time a new artist tells me they negotiated to own their own master recordings in their record contract because of this fight, I'm reminded of how important it was for all of this to happen." Taylor thanked fans for their support and said: "Every single bit of it counted, and ended us up here. Thanks to you and your goodwill, teamwork, and encouragement, the best things that have ever been mine ... finally actually are." The dispute over the master recordings attracted attention after now retired artist manager Scooter Braun got the rights to Taylor's first six albums in 2019 when his company Ithaca Holdings bought her former record label Big Machine Label Group. Taylor had moved away from the label, which reportedly owned the rights to her first six albums, the previous year and joined Universal Music Group. It was then announced in 2020 that her master recordings had been sold to investment firm Shamrock Holdings.
