American heavy metal band W.A.S.P. recently announced that the group had to cancel their upcoming US Tour due to their lead singer Blackie Lawless’ back injuries. The statement released on their website wrote:
“Because of the extensive back injuries suffered by Blackie Lawless during the European leg of the 40th Anniversary Tour, the W.A.S.P. 2023 U.S. Tour will be cancelled until Spring 2024. Tickets and VIP packages can be refunded at the point of purchase.”
The statement included Blackie’s explanation of his injury in detail. He said that it got worse since W.A.S.P.’s European Tour earlier this year:
“The extent of the trauma I endured on the 2023 European Tour was far greater than originally diagnosed and surgery will now be needed to correct the problem. In addition to the original herniated disc, as that tour continued, a 2nd disc became herniated. Upon returning home a 2nd MRI also revealed a broken vertebrae to my lower back. I’ve been fortunate to work with the best specialists in the U.S. and I’ve been in intensive rehab since we got home.”
Lawless added that the physical therapy is going well, and he will return for ‘The 40th Never Stops World Tour’ in 2024:
“It’s going well but the damage was pretty extensive and all the Dr.’s agree moving the tour a few months back will be the safest thing. It’s all been as the result of an injury that happened several years ago. I’m working my butt off to get ready and I’ll be up riding on Elvis… bigger and badder than ever. If the Torture Never Stops, then the 40th Never Stops!”
In May, Lawless also described his injury with ‘Trunk Nation with Eddie Trunk,’ and the pain he felt during the time:
“This past Monday was my 10-year anniversary from when I broke my right femur. And it’s a long, complicated story, but what’s been going on with my back is a direct reflection of what happened with that femur being broken.”
“I ended up rupturing a disk, and then that starts leaking out a gelatin that then wraps itself around the nerves coming out of the spinal cord. And that then creates this thing called nerve pain. And I don’t know if people understand what that is, because I had heard of it but I had never experienced it before. And it is pain that you cannot imagine. It is unlike anything you’ve ever experienced before.”
You can read the group’s statement here.
