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Artist News Gigs & Festivals
Machine Head say farewell tour doesn’t mean the end of the band
By Andy Malt | Published on Tuesday 2 October 2018
It’s pretty normal for ‘farewell tours’ to end up not actually being the final chapter in a band’s career. Although most bands do tend to wait until after those tours are over before disappointing fans by carrying on.
But not Machine Head. Their frontman Robb Flynn has clarified that when he said last week that the band were about to head out on a farewell tour, he didn’t actually mean that the band is coming to an end. It’s a farewell to the current line-up, that’s all.
In a video posted to Facebook last week, Flynn announced that guitarist Phil Demmel and drummer Dave McClain had quit the band, and that bassist Jared MacEachern had “kind of quit but wasn’t sure” and then decided the next day to “stick around”. Flynn explained that they had all “grown apart as people [and] musically”, before conceding that he had “held on too tight to the reigns of this band” and “suffocated those guys”.
But he then added that all four of them had nevertheless agreed to honour their upcoming tour dates as planned as “a celebration of our music and this era of the band”.
In a new statement, the band have now confirmed that while McClain and Demmel will leave following the upcoming tour dates, Machine Head will continue onwards.
“After 23 years with Dave McClain pounding the skins at the drum throne, and fifteen years with Phil Demmel shredding the guitar on stage right, both members have decided to move on from Machine Head and open a new chapter in their lives”, says the statement. “The split is amicable, and the guys are looking forward to playing these very special shows for the Head Cases of North America and ending this era on a positive and classy note”.
“To clarify”, it adds, “this is the farewell tour of this line-up of Machine Head, not the farewell tour of Machine Head, as has been reported in the media. Machine Head wish to thank Phil and Dave for their significant contributions to the band, both musically and lyrically, as well for the spirit, genuine passion they infused into the music, and legendary live performances brought along the way”.
The farewell/not farewell dates are set to begin in Sacramento on Thursday.
