Judas Priest cancelled their concert in Massachusetts at the last minute on Monday night (04.04.22), due to “non-COVID related illness”.
The heavy metal band was due to perform at the Paul E Tsongas Arena in Lowell, but had to cancel at short notice due to a member of the group taking poorly.
A tweet by Priest read: “SHOW CANCELLED APRIL 4
“It is with regret we announce that unfortunately tonight’s show at Paul E Tsongas Arena, Lowell, MA is being cancelled due to non-covid related illness. We hope to be able to make this show up in the near future. Refunds available at point of purchase.”
Clips from their concert at the Premier Theater at Foxwoods Resort Casino in Mashantucket, Connecticut on April 2, appear to show frontman Rob Halford struggling.
The 70-year-old singer was diagnosed with prostate cancer amid the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 but is in remission.
Rob updated his ‘Confess’ autobiography to include his diagnosis in order to encourage men of a “certain age” to get themselves checked out regularly.
He said: “It’s in remission. I count my blessings — thanks to God. It was a time when … You know, timing is everything in rock and roll and heavy metal. And, of course, this was going on during the pandemic — the initial stages of the pandemic — so the world was completely closed down.
“Priest would have been on a bit of a hiatus anyway, because we had just been around the world three times with [Priest’s latest album] ‘Firepower’, so we were gonna be on a kind of a break although we were writing for the new album.
“And so I was able to take care of three things, really — promote [my autobiography] ‘Confess’, do some writing with the band before I came back [home] to Phoenix, and then get this cancer business sorted out.”
He then urged: “It’s just a miracle what they can do with health care these days; it’s absolutely remarkable. So in my story, my main message is to guys everywhere around the world, when you get to a certain age, it’s very important that you get your prostate checked, your bloodwork checked, get a colonoscopy.”