NEWS
Florence Welch, the lead vocalist of Florence + The Machine, has shared that she has undergone life-saving, emergency surgery. The news comes after the band canceled its festival appearances that were scheduled for this weekend.
“I’m so sorry that I had to cancel the last couple of shows. My feet are fine, I had to have emergency surgery for reasons I don’t really feel strong enough to go into yet, but it saved my life,” Welch wrote on Sunday (Aug. 27) in an update posted on Instagram.
She told fans, “And I will be back to close out the Dance Fever tour in Lisbon and Malaga. (Maybe not jumping so much but you can do that for me.)”
“Suffice to say I wish the songs were less accurate in their predictions,” said Welch. “But creativity is a way of coping, mythology is a way of making sense. And the dark fairytale of Dance Fever, with all its strange prophecies, will provide me with much needed strength and catharsis right now.”
Florence + The Machine had called off an Aug. 25 performance at Zurich Openair and an Aug. 26 performance at Rock en Seine due to medical advice, the band previously announced to fans.
The group unfortunately also had to cancel tour dates last fall, when Welch broke her foot and was told not to perform in order to prevent further damage.
See her latest note below. Florence + The Machine’s most recent album, Dance Fever, was released in May.
Metallica bassist Jason Newsted says he is now “free and clear” after facing throat cancer.
The 63 year old musician, who played with the Enter Sandman legends from 1986 through 2001, has shared details of his diagnosis publicly for the first time. He explained that doctors discovered it early, and on May 8, 2025 he “underwent a procedure” to treat the condition.
Speaking on the Let There Be Talk podcast, he said: “They took a bunch of s*** outta here and then they went in with lasers this way and took a bunch of s*** out.
“So the cavern inside my head is different than it was, but we got it early. And I got my ‘free and clear’ about three weeks ago. So I beat it.”
Jason contributed to several of Metallica’s most iconic releases, including 1988’s ...And Justice For All, their self titled 1991 album, 1996’s Load, the 1997 follow up Reload, and 1998’s Garage Inc.
After going through his cancer experience, the bassist made a point to slow down and actually give himself time to recover instead of constantly pushing forward.
He explained: “I promised myself I was going to rest, and that was the first time I’ve done that in my life.
"I’m usually just on or off. And so I promised myself I was gonna take the gravity off and lay down for the right amount of hours."
The health scare also led Jason to give up smoking weed and drinking alcohol, something he admits he likely would not have done otherwise.
He added: “The great spirit got my attention and said, ‘That’s not good right now, man.’ And so it pulled me off it.
"And so now I’m more clear-headed than I’ve been in my entire adult life. And so there’s blessings within everything. The lemonade I’m making this summer, bro — mm. Sweet. Ooh.”
Jason has previously said that his unexpected departure ultimately helped Metallica continue moving forward, while James Hetfield and Lars Ulrich later admitted they struggled to process his decision at the time.
Lars told Apple Music in 2021: “Jason is the only member of Metallica who has ever left willingly. And that in itself is a statistic.
"And the resentment from James and I was just so… 'You can’t do that. You can only leave if we want you to leave'.
"And then we weren’t equipped at the time to do a deep dive into why he was leaving. So of course, now you can see 20 years later, it makes complete sense.”
