Once More Citing Illness, Neil Young AGAIN Cancels Dallas Concert

The bad news dropped late Wednesday, courtesy of a news update on Neil Young's site, which doubled as a social media announcement from Live Nation.

Titled "Love Earth Tour Break," the missive read, in part: "When a couple of us got sick after Detroit's Pine Knob, we had to stop. We are still not fully recovered, so sadly our great tour will have a big unplanned break."

What does that mean for Dallas, which had already seen the Dos Equis Pavilion date of Young's much-anticipated return moved three times?

The fourth time will not be the charm. The "Love Earth" tour, which would have brought Young back to North Texas for the first time in more than 10 years, has been canceled.

According to Live Nation, those who purchased tickets through Ticketmaster will be automatically refunded. Those who acquired admission through a third-party site (such as SeatGeek or StubHub) will need to reach out to their specific point of purchase for more details.

The "Love Earth" tour began on April 24 and made it to Phoenix before weather concerns forced Young to postpone. The original May 2 Dallas date was ultimately rescheduled for Sept. 15, after briefly being moved to Memorial Day. Presumably, Wednesday's announcement means the run of dates scheduled to begin July 8 in Toronto is now scrapped, although the wording is rather vague on this point — as is whether Young and Crazy Horse will return to the road at all this year.

"We will try to play some of the dates we miss as time passes when we are ready to rock again," the announcement reads. "We know many of you made travel plans and we apologize for the inconvenience. Thanks for your understanding and patience. Health is #1. We want to stay and do more shows and more albums for you ... and for us."

As a reminder, after postponing the concert due to a weather threat that never materialized, Young pushed off his Dallas return for a second (technically, third) time.

On May 1, Young posted a note under the news section of his website — cheekily titled “NYA Times-Contrarian” — with the dispiriting headline “Love Earth Tour Lightning Threat Cancels Texas Shows.”

“Too dangerous for us to put our audience in that situation,” the unsigned message read. “We are rolling on, with these shows coming back in September on our way to Farm Aid. We are headed to New Orleans now. Would have loved to play Texas — Austin and Dallas, but too unsafe at the moment. Sitting in the parking lots, lightning flashing in the sky. Movin’ on.”

The May 2 performance was originally rescheduled for Sept. 14, but at some point, the concert was surreptitiously scooted up to Memorial Day — May 27 — at the tail end of Young and Crazy Horse's then-current run of "Love Earth" dates (which had been scheduled to conclude in Chicago on May 23).

The Chicago gig was postponed late in the afternoon of May 23, as were the make-up dates in Austin (May 26) and Dallas (May 27).

Live Nation released this statement the evening of May 23: "Regretfully, Neil Young & Crazy Horse's show at Dos Equis Pavilion on May 27th is being postponed due to illness. This show will be rescheduled. Hold on to your tickets and stay tuned for more information." As of this writing, no make-up date has been announced (maybe it'll go back to Sept. 14?), so Young's Dallas fans, if they haven't already just given up and requested a refund, will have to hang on a little bit longer.

After the first postponement, Live Nation issued a press release stating that Young's Dos Equis show had been pushed back until Sept. 14.

"All previously purchased tickets will be honored for the new date," the statement read. "Current ticket holders will receive more information via email and additional tickets are on sale now at LiveNation.com. At time of purchase, fans can opt in to receive a physical CD of the Neil Young + Crazy Horse new album FU##IN’ UP included with their tickets for no additional cost."

This concert would have marked the 78-year-old rocker’s first Dallas appearance in more than a decade. He appeared solo for a two-night stand at the Morton H. Meyerson Symphony Center in April 2014.

It’s been even longer — 21 years — since Young and Crazy Horse, with whom he has embarked on the current “Love Earth” tour, have performed together in Dallas. Young and Crazy Horse last appeared at the same venue they were scheduled to headline Thursday (then known as Smirnoff Music Centre) on Aug. 5, 2003.