THE FALLOUT: Neil Young Cancels 2026 Europe Tour & What Went Wrong?
The ongoing fallout over the sudden cancelation of Neil Young's 2026 European Tour with The Chrome Hearts continues to reverberate across the Atlantic and beyond.
As the eloquent Scotsman puts it:
Last year on November 21, 2025, Neil Young announced that the LOVE EARTH 2026 UK/EU TOUR would begin on June 19, 2026 in Manchester, England followed by about a dozen other dates. Ticket sales began on November 28.
On January 21, a new tour date was added for June 17 at the Eden Sessions in Cornwall, UK.
Obviously, the rustie speculation is off the charts. Folks bought tickets for Europe. Bought plane tickets, booked hotels and rentals. And suddenly, no tour or plausible explanation.
If nothing else, we can all agree about the disappointment all around.
As the eloquent Scotsman puts it:
"The cancellation of Neil Young's Euro tour has unleashed a tsunami of disappointment (and also bittersweet understanding) among those who had tickets — and raises questions about exactly what went wrong."So first, let's try and unpack what we know.
Last year on November 21, 2025, Neil Young announced that the LOVE EARTH 2026 UK/EU TOUR would begin on June 19, 2026 in Manchester, England followed by about a dozen other dates. Ticket sales began on November 28.
On January 21, a new tour date was added for June 17 at the Eden Sessions in Cornwall, UK.
On January 27, Neil Young held a Patron ZOOM call for roughly one hour -- "looking fantastic" -- where he discussed a multitude of topics including additional possible tour plans in the U.S. plus recording an album of new songs in the studio.
Then on February 6, Neil Young announced the cancelation of the 2026 European Tour with The Chrome Hearts.
In a statement published on Neil Young Archives, Neil wrote:
"I'm sorry to disappoint you, but now just isn't the right time."So what happened between January 27 and February 6? Apparently it was still the right time to tour on January 27 but less than 2 weeks later it wasn't?
Obviously, the rustie speculation is off the charts. Folks bought tickets for Europe. Bought plane tickets, booked hotels and rentals. And suddenly, no tour or plausible explanation.
And with that background, The Scotsman steps up to attempt to understand what's happening here ... although it ain't exactly clear. Scotsman walks through the standard litanies of Neil's health, Neil following his muse, Neil's "eat a peach" attitude, etc.
Recall that just back in 2024, suddenly all remaining dates of Neil Young's tour with Crazy Horse were canceled unexpectedly for "health reasons". The Scotsman sums up 3 possibilities for the Europe tour cancelation:
Lastly, we'll highlight The Scotsman's conclusion regarding The Eden Project, the event just added to the itinerary:
A) Health. B) Unsatisfactory sales/demand. C) Donald Trump.The bottom line: who knows?
Lastly, we'll highlight The Scotsman's conclusion regarding The Eden Project, the event just added to the itinerary:
Finally: Take a listen to the first 180 seconds of the video embedded
at the top of the page, (TW: below) about the Eden Project. Particularly, take note of the section around 2:30 to 3 minutes in. This all sounds like a dream scenario for Neil, doesn't it? Indeed, it explicitly focuses on the very same subjects he's passionately dedicated much of the 21st century to.At least in this case, I think he is absolutely sincere about being sorry to let people down... and he will be disappointed not to attend, too.
If nothing else, we can all agree about the disappointment all around.
Thanks Scots -- as always -- for the words. The passion. The insights.
If you can, please support @ The Flying Scotzman | Patreon.
peace
Labels: album, concert, neil young, neil young archives, singer-songwriter, song, tour
by thrasher@PermaLink: 2/16/2026 12:01:00 PM
1 comments
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1 Comments:
First up, thanks Thrasher for linking to "Scotzman HQ", and doing the usual job of being the blogging hub that the rest of us revolve around.
A clarification about my original article that may have been lacking. I didn't mean to imply that Neil is likely to have cancelled at this stage solely because of his previously-stated concerns about interference from the Trump government.
Four months is a long time in the Trump kingdom! Who knows what will be happening in June. (It was also only a relatively short tour that would have been straightforward to plan around.)
The nature of the tour cancellation, plus Neil's vague statement, obviously raises questions.
One of those questions is this:
Where did the confidence come from to mount one of the most epic-scale Neil Young UK tours of all time?
(Do not misunderstand my point. There may be extremely good answers to that question. For example, if Elvis Costello was expected to shift significant tickets.)
But playing 5,000-seat theatres or 10,000-seat arenas in London is not the same as playing a 35,000-capacity field in Wales, where the total population of the entire country is only about a third of the size of England's capital city.
If we treat UK 2025 and UK 2026 as essentially one long tour with a break in the middle, then the sheer capacity of all the venues is in excess of even big arena tours like Crazy Horse 2001, or Alchemy in 2013. And Alchemy was the first Crazy Horse UK tour in 12 years — demand was obviously going to be high.
Why such huge venues? It raises the question whether this was originally intended to be marketed as a final European tour. (A separate question: without that marketing, how strong was demand likely to be?)
Imagine several shows have struggled to shift tickets at large scale. At this point, a firm decision has to be made by those in charge: do we press onwards and wait for things to pick up? Or do we cut our losses and move on to greener pastures?
In this hypothetical scenario, I can then imagine other concerns (including some of those discussed in the original article, or others entirely) being the straws that collectively broke the camel's back.
That's one entirely plausible scenario. It's not the only one.
I'm disappointed, of course. But disappointment is tempered by the realisation that Neil is 80 and could have retired years ago. Tours are naturally going to become less reliable. Health concerns (even just the generalised "do I want to be doing this much longer?" kind) have to be near the top of the list, for this tour and any other.
If it turns out the tour has essentially been cancelled due to bad planning, many will argue that is less defensible.
Scotsman.
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