STILLS AND YOUNG TOUR CUT SHORT BY RAW THROAT

Journal: Rolling Stone
Date: 26th August 1976

A MONTH AFTER IT HAD begun, the eleven-week-long Stephen Stills/ Neil Young band tour was over. The reason was Young's recurring throat malady, something he had had surgery to relieve just last summer.

Although the managers and promoters preferred to use the term "postponed," rather than "canceled," the tour has not yet been rescheduled. Stills will play out the three outdoor Florida shows remaining in the first leg, bravely following Lynyrd Skynyrd in their home state. "It's the least I can do," he said in Jacksonville, "to salvage the tour." Regardless of his partner, Stills will probably perform throughout the summer.

Young canceled a tour with Crazy Horse in the spring of '75 for the same reason. Shortly afterward, his throat was operated on for the removal of a growth. His first subsequent public appearance was as a surprise guitarist for a Stills concert in Berkeley's Greek Theatre in July of that year. At the time, he could communicate only with handwritten notes. The two later booked time at Criteria Sound Studios and recorded an album, Long May You Run, then canceled their summer 1976 solo tours in favor of a joint one.

After several weeks spent shuffling songs and arrangements, the tour had just begun to peak. Their last show was in Columbia, South Carolina, and was well received in the local media. According to several sources, Young's throat began acting up during that show and by the next concert, in Atlanta three days later, he had yielded to the illness. He immediately flew to Los Angeles for medical treatment and is now recuperating at his northern California ranch.

In Atlanta, the sudden cancellation spawned a number of wild rumors, the most widely spread of which was that Young had been killed in a plane crash. At last word, he was waiting for his doctor's diagnosis, which will decide whether the Stills/Young tour will surface again.