Nine Inch Nails has canceled all live performances the rock band had scheduled for 2021, joining the growing list of touring artists to call off concert plans over concerns about the coronavirus pandemic.
Before canceling Thursday, Nine Inch Nails had been set to headline festivals slated to happen soon in Illinois, Kentucky and Florida, plus two concerts next month in the band’s hometown of Cleveland, Ohio.
Nine Inch Nails now plans to stay off the road until 2022. The only performance listed on the band’s website is a heavy metal festival in France next June where the group has also been given top billing.
In a statement, Nine Inch Nails, a multi-award-winning, Rock and Roll Hall of Fame-inducted group formed in 1988, explained it seems premature to resume performing live at this point in the pandemic.
“When originally planned, these shows were intended to be a cathartic and celebratory return to live music. However, with each passing day it’s becoming more apparent we’re not at that place yet,” it said.
“We are sorry for any inconvenience or disappointment and look forward to seeing you again when the time is right,” Nine Inch Nail said in the statement.
While the coronavirus pandemic drove virtually all bands off the road beginning in early 2020, numerous major acts have in recent weeks and months started booking and performing live concerts once again.
However, several acts have reversed course due to a nationwide jump in cases of COVID-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus, including more infections as well as hospitalizations and deaths.
Limp Bizkit performed just two dates of the rap-rock group’s “Limited Last Minute Post Pandemic Popup Party Edition” tour before calling off the rest of the shows last week out of an abundance of caution.
“Even if the performers, crews, staff and promoters do their best to ensure safety on and behind the stage, that doesn’t ensure the safety of the audience as a whole,” said Limp Bizkit singer Fred Durst.
More recently, singer-songwriter Neil Young said Wednesday this week that he will not perform this year at the yearly Farm Aid benefit concert he co-founded with Willie Nelson and John Mellencamp in 1985.
“My soul tells me it would be wrong to risk having anyone die because they wanted to hear music and be with friends,” Mr. Young said in a statement announcing his decision to drop off the event’s lineup.
“I worry about the children who could become infected after Farmaid, just by being with someone, maybe a parent, who caught the virus at Farmaid and didn’t know it,” Mr. Young, 75, wrote on his website.
Nine Inch Nails last performed live in late 2018. The group had been set to headline the third and final day of Riot Fest in Chicago on Sept. 19 before a pair of hometown shows with Pixies the next week.
Metal group Slipknot will now perform at Riot Fest in place of Nine Inch Nails. British singer Morrissey, the former leader of The Smiths, has also been added to the event’s line-up as well.
Nine Inch Nails had also planned on performing later this fall at Louder Than Life in Louisville and Welcome To Rockville in Jacksonville. Festival organizers have not yet announced a replacement.
The performances were to be the first since Nine Inch Nails was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in November during a ceremony that was held virtually due to the coronavirus pandemic.
Nine Inch Nails frontman Trent Reznor, the band’s founder, singer and sole constant member, has been widely regarded as one of the most influential musicians in rock and metal since the early 1990s.
Mr. Reznor, 56, has accordingly received numerous accolades during his decades-long career, including two Grammy Awards and the Country Music Association’s 2019 CMA Award for Musical Event of the Year.
“Old Town Road,” a hit for rapper Lil Nas X and country artist Billy Ray Cyrus, incorporates part of a Nine Inch Nails tune. Mr. Reznor and his bandmate Atticus Ross each thus received co-producer credits.
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