TOOL Cancel North American Tour

Back in February, TOOL announced a slate of North American tour dates for spring and summer behind their comeback album Fear Inoculum. Following postponement due to the spread of COVID-19, the group has now outright canceled the tour so that fans can get full refunds for their tickets. “In our opinion, tying up our fans’ money for months, if not a full year, is unfair,” the band wrote in a statement. “With that in mind, we have made the very difficult decision to cancel the tour so we can help support the people who have supported us for years.” Find the group’s full remarks below.

TOOL released their comeback LP Fear Inoculum last year. It marked their first studio album as a group since 2006’s 10,000 Days. Earlier this year, TOOL won the 2020 Grammy Award for Best Metal Performance for “7empest.”

As so many music lovers have come to realize over the last several weeks, there is no playbook that artists, promoters and venues can pull from in these unprecedented times.

When we played what would be our final show of 2020, March 11 at Portland’s Moda Center, we believed we would be back on the road sometime this Fall. As we worked towards that goal we’ve come to realize that there is absolutely no certainty in re-scheduling dates for this Fall or 2021. State and local ordinances vary widely and no one can predict when high capacity events will safely return.

At the same time that we were working to reschedule this tour, we read your messages. Messages of job losses, illness, emotional and financial pain. We could continue to postpone or reschedule dates for some time into 2021 but ethically, we do not think this is the right course of action. In our opinion, tying up our fans’ money for months, if not a full year, is unfair. With that in mind, we have made the very difficult decision to cancel the tour so we can help support the people who have supported us for years.

Please know, we want nothing more than to return to the road, to play these songs for you and to celebrate our shared recovery. When the time is right, we will do just that.

In the coming days you will receive an email from the ticketing service you purchased tickets through notifying you of the event cancellation and when to expect your refund.

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Originally Appeared on Pitchfork