Kings Of Leon cancel all UK and European shows due to Caleb Followill “freak accident”

Kings Of Leon have cancelled all of their UK and European shows following Caleb Followill being involved in a “freak accident”.

• READ MORE: How Kings of Leon got their swagger back: “We’re not ready to quit” 

The frontman announced the news today (May 28) via an update on social media. Taking to Instagram, he shared that he underwent emergency surgery recently after breaking his foot.

“Hello to everyone out there, especially our European fans who are coming to see us this summer,” he began. “Unfortunately I regret to inform you that those shows will have to be cancelled due to a freak accident that happened the other day. I broke my foot pretty bad playing with my kids.

“It’s pretty gnarly and I’ll spare all the details. But we’re fortunate enough to have some great doctors here in Nashville that gave me emergency surgery. I’m on the mend, but they told me that I can’t be on my feet, travelling, or anything for the next eight weeks or so. That’s a big bummer. “

He continued, revealing that the band were planning on previewing some new material during the now-cancelled gigs, and reassuring fans that he and his bandmates will continue trying to work during the upcoming months.

“We were so excited, we’ve been preparing for this tour for a long time… We’ve been in the studio recording, we have a bunch of new songs, we were going to debut a few of them on this run,” Followill added. “We had a lot of exciting things planned and now we’re going to have to pivot and find a new way to continue the work that we’ve started.”

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Concluding, he added: “I’m very excited for when we do get to show you the stuff we’re doing, and in the meantime we’re going to do whatever work we can while I have these limitations. Exciting stuff is coming, I know this isn’t the message anyone wants to hear. It’s certainly not the message I want to be sending, but it’s going to be alright. Hopefully, we will see y’all soon.”

In an official statement, the band also shared: “Kings of Leon are updating fans that Caleb Followill has recently sustained a serious injury, shattering his heel and requiring a significant emergency surgery, that will prevent him from travelling and performing.”

“The anticipated recovery process is expected to take eight weeks, under strict guidance of expert orthopaedic specialists,” it continued. “The band regrets to report that they will need to cancel all upcoming UK and European festival headline shows in June and July of this year. Caleb took to social media today to detail his injury in a heartfelt apology to all the fans.”

The now-scrapped shows included two huge UK headline shows, set to take place in Cardiff and Lytham this summer. The former was a slot at the Blackweir Live series, and the latter was part of Lytham Festival, where the band were set to take to the stage alongside Justin Timberlake, Alanis Morissette, Simple Minds and Texas.

Other affected gigs included Southsea’s Victorious Festival, Mad Cool Festival in Madrid, Belhium’s Rock Werchter and Newcastle’s Come Together Festival. At time of writing, no rescheduled live shows have been announced.

The shows were set to take place in celebration of Kings Of Leon’s ninth studio album, ‘Can We Please Have Fun’, which was shared last May. That record was given four-star review from NME and described as “easily KOL’s most promising, liberated record for over a decade”.

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