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Breaking: Tragically Hip’s Gord Downie has Terminal Brain Cancer

In a statement released by the legendary band very early this morning, The Tragically Hip share some pretty shocking and sad news: their lead singer and enigmatic frontman, Gord Downie, has terminal brain cancer.

Here’s the message in full, as was sent to members of their fan club:

Hello friends.

We have some very tough news to share with you today, and we wish it wasn’t so.

A few months ago, in December, Gord Downie was diagnosed with terminal brain cancer.

Since then, obviously, he’s endured a lot of difficult times, and he has been fighting hard. In privacy along with his family, and through all of this, we’ve been standing by him.

So after 30-some years together as The Tragically Hip, thousands of shows, and hundreds of tours…

We’ve decided to do another one.

This feels like the right thing to do now, for Gord, and for all of us.

What we in The Hip receive, each time we play together, is a connection; with each other; with music and it’s magic; and during the shows, a special connection with all of you, our incredible fans.

So, we’re going to dig deep, and try to make this our best tour yet.

We hope you can come out and join us this summer – details and dates will be coming this week.

And we sincerely thank all of you, for your continued love and support,

Paul, GordD, Johnny, Rob, GordS

Last week, members of the band received honourary degrees from Queen’s University. The band is also preparing to release a new album, Man Machine Poem, later this summer.

More on this developing story as it becomes available.

Update, 11:50 a.m.: The Tragically Hip will announce a summer tour tomorrow morning, May 25. So far the only indication is that the tour will feature only Canadian cities.

More at the CBC.

Amber Healy

I write about music policy and lawsuits because they're endlessly fascinating.

Amber Healy has 523 posts and counting. See all posts by Amber Healy

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