Key points
Steve Miller Band announced the cancellation of their upcoming U.S. tour on social media.
The band cited “extreme heat, unpredictable flooding, tornadoes, hurricanes and massive forest fires” in their explanation.
Multiple band members defended the group’s decision on their personal social media profiles.
Despite being a self-proclaimed picker, grinner, lover, and sinner, Steve Miller will not be playing his music in the sun.
The Steve Miller Band announced Wednesday that they are canceling their entire upcoming tour, citing the possibility of extreme weather conditions.
“You make music with your instincts/You live your life by your instincts/Always trust your instincts,” the band said in a statement on social media. “The Steve Miller Band has cancelled all of our upcoming tour dates. The combination of extreme heat, unpredictable flooding, tornadoes, hurricanes and massive forest fires make these risks for you our audience, the band and the crew unacceptable. So…You can blame it on the weather…The tour is cancelled.”
The band left the door open for future performances, writing: “Don’t know where, don’t know when… We hope to see you all again.”
A representative for the Steve Miller Band declined Entertainment Weekly‘s request for further comment.
Steve Miller Band were set to perform dozens of shows across the United States this year, beginning the tour in Bethel, N.Y., on Aug. 15. The axed tour would have taken the group to Los Angeles, Las Vegas, Memphis, St. Paul, Tampa, and numerous other major cities.
Several members of the Steve Miller Band reacted to the news on their personal social media pages, and expressed their appreciation for Miller’s artistry and friendship while emphasizing that the tour cancellation was ultimately the “Fly Like an Eagle” singer’s decision.
“We had a very nice conversation yesterday on the phone and I can hear that Steve’s very tough decision to cancel this years tour is the right one for him,” guitarist Jacob Petersen wrote on Facebook. “He’s 82 in a few months, he needs to reflect and figure out what he want’s the last years of playing to look like… He can’t waste it and/or risk his health. IF he decides to keep some form of touring, it needs to be the RIGHT way.”
Petersen suggested that it’s possible that Miller will undertake “spring/fall short tours where he can be in control of venues and gigs he enjoys to play” or “a farewell tour,” but also hypothesized that the “Rockin’ Me” singer may opt to “just stay home, record what he enjoys just for his love of music.”
Petersen suspects, however, that Miller still has “a lot there yet to share with everyone” despite his age.
“He may be at the final phase, 81 years old… but like his Godfather Les Paul and the blues man that he is, I personally don’t see him being done full stop,” he wrote. “Blues men don’t do that when they’re still playing on such a high level and are still very much in demand.”
Brad Barket/Getty
Steve Miller Band performing in New York City in 2019
Meanwhile, the group’s bassist, Kenny Lee Lewis, penned a strongly-worded response to criticism that Miller received from music critic Bob Lefsetz.
“You didn’t see Steve Miller hanging over a railing after our first outdoor stadium show opening in the sun for Journey and Def Leopard in Atlanta trying to fend off heat exhaustion. I was really worried about him,” the musician wrote on Facebook. “Next couple outdoor shows the crew had to arrange the stage air coolers with flexible ducts on him as he also wore frozen gel packs on his neck and shoulders. He looked like the Michelin Man! And he still almost passed out.”
Sign up for Entertainment Weekly’s free daily newsletter to get breaking TV news, exclusive first looks, recaps, reviews, interviews with your favorite stars, and more.
Lewis emphasized that the cancellation has “nothing to do with poor ticket sales,” and that Miller only “reluctantly” agreed to take on outdoor venues on this tour.
“The Joker has always relied on instincts and in this case he is rolling that pair of dice again,” he wrote. “It’s too frickin hot for an 81 year-old to go out on that stage as temperatures keep breaking records even if you are the closer as the sun sets. As for his indoor shows that were cancelled on this tour I can’t comment on. I’m sure the logistics of fragmenting the dates and changing routing and days off layovers would have been a nightmare for production. So he just chose to cancel everything.”
The band’s keyboardist, Joseph Wooten, posted a video suggesting that the news of the cancellation surprised him, but that he appreciates Miller nonetheless.
“I got a phone call earlier today from Steve Miller, and he let me know that he was canceling the 2025 Steve Miller Band tour and maybe leaving touring altogether,” Wooten said in the video. “I wasn’t expecting that. I’ve been in the band for 32 years, over half my life. I’ve met a lot of great people in a lot of great cities. I’ve had lifelong friendships with my bandmates, excellent musicians. It’s been a great run and a great story, and like any great story, the end of one chapter is the beginning of another.”
Read the original article on Entertainment Weekly
