The StrokesThe Strokes guitarist Nick Valensi has dropped off the band’s forthcoming tour, the band confirmed.
From mid-June to late October, the US indie rockers will be taking their Reality Awaits tour – named after their forthcoming album of the same name – across North America, Europe, and the UK. Plus, they’ll play two shows in Japan in August.
The shows will see them accompanied by special guests including Thundercat, Fat White Family, Alex Cameron, and more, plus Cage the Elephant for one night only.
On Thursday (14 May), The Strokes took to their Instagram Stories, where they confirmed that “Nick will be taking a temporary break from the scheduled tour, but we look forward to his return,” per NME.
While the band didn’t give a reason for Valensi’s temporary departure, they informed fans that “holding down the guitar in the meantime is our old friend Steve Schiltz, who many of you will remember from the early NY days.”
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Steve Schiltz is a close friend of The Strokes. As well as being an associate with the band in the early 2000s, he was also busy during that period when he founded the band Longwave, which released the well-known albums Endsongs and The Strangest Things in 2000 and 2003, respectively.
Last month, The Strokes announced that their forthcoming album, Reality Awaits, would be released on Friday, 26 June.
Their first album since 2020’s The New Abnormal, the group kicked off the album campaign with the new single, Going Shopping. Produced by Rick Rubin, the album is set to feature nine tracks.
The band performed at Coachella last month, where they made headlines for taking a stand against alleged US intervention in foreign wars and the overthrowing of international regimes.
With the screens behind them, they drew attention to accusing the CIA of enforcing regime change through alleged assassinations and footage of universities being destroyed in Gaza and Iran.
