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Wilco Singer Enters Rehab
04/07/2004 12:00 PM, E! Online
Josh Grossberg
Wilco's
main man can't stand it anymore.
Jeff Tweedy, the
singer-songwriter behind the seminal alt-country band, has checked
himself into a drug rehabilitation center to treat an addiction to
prescription painkillers brought on by his long battle with migraine
headaches, his publicist confirmed.
"He has
struggled with migraines for a very, very long time, and when you suffer
from them, it's pretty bad," said his rep Deb Bernadini.
As a result, Wilco's label Nonesuch Records has postponed the
release of the group's new album, A Ghost Is Born, from June 8 to
June 22 "to accommodate Tweedy's recovery," according to Bernadini. It
also forced them to scrap a brief European press tour, though the
frontman wasn't scheduled to perform.
"The only
thing it has affected is that the label decided to move the release date
back two weeks," added Bernadini.
Tweedy has long
battled a throbbin' noggin.
In I Am Trying to
Break Your Heart, a 2002 documentary on the making of Wilco's
critically acclaimed fourth album, Yankee
Hotel Foxtrot, the 36-year-old musician was seen struggling with
migraines, even tossing his cookies after becoming physically sick while
mastering the song "Heavy Metal Drummer."
Bernadini said
Tweedy's stint in rehab won't interfere with Wilco's upcoming spring
tour, which kicks off Apr. 21 at the Blue Note in Columbia, Missouri.
The alt-rockers have lined up eight dates so far, including a gig at
this year's New Orleans Jazzfest on Apr. 23, a May 1 performance at
Southern California's Coachella Valley Music & Arts Festival, and a June
11 stop at the Bonnaroo music festival in Manchester, Tennessee.
After their U.S. jaunt, Wilco is set to cross the
Atlantic for a European trek. Bernadini said those dates are in the
process of being scheduled, but a May 28 concert in Barcelona, Spain,
"is definitely a go."
Wilco was formed after the break
up of Tweedy's other cult band, Uncle
Tupelo, in the early '90s. After finding critical success with the
album Being
There and Mermaid Avenue Vol. I and Vol. II, two
collaborations with English singer-songwriter Billy Bragg that channeled
American folk legend Woody Guthrie, the Chicago-based quintet crossed
over to the mainstream with the 1999 opus, Summer Teeth, which,
with its lush pop orchestrations, garnered comparisons to the Beach Boys
and the Beatles.
Ironically, Wilco had trouble
releasing a follow-up album when their old label, Reprise Records,
rejected the new tunes Tweedy & Co. had written. After posting the
material on the crooner's Website, Wilco signed with Warner-based
Nonesuch, which finally released Yankee Hotel Foxtrot to
career-best reviews. Yankee also became the group's bestselling
album to date.
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