Lewis Capaldi has announced he will be taking a break from touring “for the foreseeable future”, saying he is “still learning to adjust to the impact of my Tourette’s”.
The Scottish star (26) said his performance at Glastonbury at the weekend made it “obvious that I need to spend much more time getting my mental and physical health in order, so I can keep doing everything I love for a long time to come”.
Performing on the Pyramid stage on Saturday, he was emotional as the crowd carried him through songs as he struggled with his voice. Capaldi was scheduled to play at this year’s Electric Picnic, which takes place in Stradbally, Co Laois, from Friday, September 1st, to Sunday, September 3rd.
Earlier this month, he cancelled all of his other commitments in June ahead of the festival at Worthy Farm to allow himself time to “rest and recover”.
In a lengthy post on social media, he wrote: “First of all, thank you to Glastonbury for having me, for singing along when I needed it and for all the amazing messages afterwards. It really does mean the world.
“The fact that this probably won’t come as a surprise doesn’t make it any easier to write, but I’m very sorry to let you know I’m going to be taking a break from touring for the foreseeable future.
“I used to be able to enjoy every second of shows like this and I’d hoped 3 weeks away would sort me out. But the truth is I’m still learning to adjust to the impact of my Tourette’s and on Saturday it became obvious that I need to spend much more time getting my mental and physical health in order, so I can keep doing everything I love for a long time to come.
“I know I’m incredibly fortunate to be able to take some time out when others can’t and I’d like to thank my amazing family, friends, team, medical professionals and all of you who’ve been so supportive every step of the way through good times and even more so during the past year when I’ve needed it more than ever.
“I’m so incredibly sorry to everyone who had planned to come to a show before the end of the year but I need to feel well to perform at the standard you all deserve.
“Playing for you every night is all I’ve ever dreamed of so this has been the most difficult decision of my life.
“I’ll be back as soon as I possibly can.”
After performing his song Bruises at the weekend, he admitted he was having voice issues, telling the crowd: “I’m going to be honest, everybody, but I’m starting to lose my voice up here, but we’re going to keep going and we’re going to go until the end.
“I just need you all to sing with me as loud as you can if that’s okay?”
He continued to apologise to the crowd, and the Eavis family who organise Glastonbury, for his voice starting to go – but the ocean of fans replied by cheering him on and chanting: “Oh, Lewis Capaldi”.
Before his final song, he told the crowd: “I recently took three weeks off just because I’ve been non-stop the past year and I wanted to take a wee break from my head for my mental health.
“I wanted to come back and do Glastonbury because it’s obviously so incredible so I just want to thank you all for coming out. I was scared but you’ve really made me feel at ease so thank you very much for that.”
Capaldi added: “I feel like I’ll be taking another wee break over the next couple of weeks so you probably won’t see much of me for the rest of the year ... But when I do come back, when I do see you, I hope you’re all still up for watching.”
He closed his set with his Grammy-nominated track Someone You Loved, telling the crowd, “I love you all”, and became emotional as they chanted back the lyrics to him when he was struggling to sing some of the notes. – PA
