Foo Fighters Cancel Tour, Dave Grohl Tells The Whole ‘Broken Leg’ Story
The Foo Fighters have canceled the remainder of their U.K. and European tour, as the full scope of Dave Grohl's scary in-concert injury becomes clear.
Grohl underwent surgery on Monday after breaking his leg during a show on June 12 in Gothenburg, Sweden. Fans were thrilled that night when he returned to the stage to finish the show but, alas, doctors are now ordering Grohl to take a lengthy break from the road.
Headline performances at Rock Werchter (on June 25) and Glastonbury (June 26) are included in this latest batch of cancellations. The Foo Fighters announced that they'd miss a June 14 appearance at the Landgraaf's Pinkpop Festival and a June 16 show at the AFG Arena in St. Gallen, Switzerland, the day after Grohl's spill.
Still up in the air is a string of American shows still scheduled to begin on July 4. "Dave’s full recuperation time," a band press release noted, "is still to be determined."
Grohl also issued his own statement on the events of the past week. It's a long one, so we'll just break some it down for you here:
The funniest thing happened to me the other day in Sweden!
Two songs into our set at Ullevi Stadium in Gothenburg, I made a mad dash to the right of the stage during MONKEY WRENCH to shred some tasty licks for the kids up front. It was a beautiful night, beautiful stadium, 52,000 screaming people….dream gig! Well….wait for it….I definitely shredded something (ZING!) Wound up feet first over the Edge (pun intended), dropping about 12 feet, dislocating my ankle and snapping my fibula like an old pair of take out chopsticks. Whoopsie daisy. Not good. Without realizing the extent of my injuries, I stood up to get back onstage and crumbled like a sack of Joe Theismanns (look it up, kiddies). That s--- was B-R-O-K-E ...
So….here I am, recovering with 6 metal screws in my leg, thinking about a lifetime of holding up TSA lines from here to Kalamazoo….damn.
Here’s the not so witty bit…….My doctors have advised me to lay low for a while. The most important thing now is for me to recover from the surgery, to keep my leg elevated so as to keep swelling down and prevent any infection/complication that could do long term damage. I’m not out of the woods yet, folks…
Which means, and it kills me to say it…..the doctors have told us to cancel shows. I’m really so sorry, guys. You know I hate to do it, but I’m afraid it’s just not physically possible for me at the moment. We’re doing our best right now to work out a plan, so bear with us. You know we’re good for our word. But for now, I need to make sure we have YEARS of gigs ahead of us….
You have always stood by our band, and we will always stand by you. Like I say at every show, we wouldn’t be here if it weren’t for you guys. And I mean that. I thank you from the bottom of my heart. And I will do everything I can to come back and give you a night to remember for the rest of your lives AS SOON AS POSSIBLE.
Until then…my sincerest apologies.
After Grohl's accident, drummer Taylor Hawkins then led the Foo Fighters through a series of classic-rock cover songs before Grohl returned, singing and playing guitar while an assistant held his leg in place. Grohl said he felt “lucky that I’ve got my band, so that when I break my f—ing leg they can still play music!”
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