Moore, 65, was set to hit the road on a 10-date speaking tour of the U.S. to promote his forthcoming memoir, “Sonic Life,” but the guitarist announced via Instagram on Tuesday that doctor’s orders had forced him to nix the tour.
“It utterly bereaves me to pass on the news that I have been advised by my medical team here in the UK to cancel my upcoming USA book tour,” Moore wrote on Instagram. “For years I have been dealing with a longstanding health condition, though it has never seriously stopped me from touring and recording. Regardless it’s always been an underlying issue and as I reach my mid-60s this year it has become rather, and consistently, debilitating.”
Moore continued that, after a recent consultation with his doctors, he’d been strongly advised against flying anywhere “under any circumstance until they get it all sorted out.”
“This news is utterly distressing as the publication of my memoir, ‘Sonic Life,’ after the last few years of intense writing and editing, means so much to me,” he continued. “I’ve been looking forward to talking about the book at all the events which had been organized in the weeks ahead. Especially as so many event organizers and booksellers have been so supportive in preparing for the shows. I’ll mostly miss being able to share with everyone who purchased tickets to exchange all manner of Sonic Youth storytelling and arcana.”
Moore said that ticket holders would be refunded. “Fingers firmly crossed I have a chance to make it up to you when I’m cleared for travel again.”
The tour was set to open Oct. 24 in Jersey City and run through a Nov. 4 engagement in San Francisco. In May, Moore wrote that the forthcoming memoir tells the story of the guitarist’s childhood and teenage years as he fell in love with music, and how it led him to New York City, where he co-founded Sonic Youth.
“It’s an adventure that would take me around the globe throughout the 1980s, ’90s and onward, engaging with the magic music of visionaries, artists, and wild angels turning the world on its ear,” he wrote. “This book has been ages in the making, the product of intensive research and deep dives into my memories and emotions. I believe I’ve been able to capture the whirlwind of experiences that being in Sonic Youth entailed, as well as the creative communities that we found ourselves a part of, first in New York’s punk and no wave scenes, and later in the world of underground and alternative rock and the universe of music- beyond- category.”
Moore co-founded the experimental post-punk noise rock group in 1981 with his ex-wife, bassist and vocalist Kim Gordon, and guitarist-singer Lee Ranaldo. The band split in 2011, when Moore and Gordon announced their marriage was over. Sonic Youth performed its final show at a festival in São Paulo, Brazil, in November that year.
Gordon released her own memoir, “Girl in a Band,” in 2015 — she details her messy split with Moore, and the affair she discovered as its catalyst.
“Sonic Life” hits bookshop shelves on Oct. 24.