Van Halen have abruptly postponed all tour dates after their June 26th show in New Orleans with no explanation.
The band yanked more than 30 long-planned dates, including shows in Milwaukee, Detroit, Cleveland, Salt Lake City and El Paso. Local promoters United Concerts and AEG issued statements regarding some postponed shows to local media, including the Salt Lake Tribune and Las Cruces Sun-News, but no details have been offered yet about rescheduled dates or refunds.
Nearly all of the tour is promoted by Live Nation, whose reps wouldn't comment. The band's rep also had no comment. A source with knowledge of the tour tells Rolling Stone that Van Halen's members "hate each other." Adds the source, "The band is arguing like mad. They are fighting."
News of the postponed tour dates surprised several arena reps, who are featuring upcoming Van Halen shows prominently on their websites. "You want to know the absolute fuckin' truth? I have no fuckin' idea," another concert-business source with knowledge of the tour tells Rolling Stone.
"It's selling pretty good – I don't know why they would say it's being canceled," says a source at the Mohegan Sun Arena in Uncasville, Connecticut, where the band was supposed to perform on July 7th.
Several of the non-canceled dates have nearly sold out, including this Saturday's show in Minneapolis and June 20th in Dallas. "We're selling really well," says Jack Larson, vice president and general manager of the Xcel Energy Center. "We're looking forward to it."
After decades of touring with Sammy Hagar (and, for a brief period in the late 1990s, Gary Cherone), Van Halen reunited with David Lee Roth for a 2007 tour and hit the road again with him in February. The band released its first new album with Roth, "A Different Kind of Truth," earlier that month. It sold 187,000 copies in its debut week and hit Number Two.