Colter Wall, Paul Cauthen Cancel Shows Citing Mental/Physical Health
In previous eras—and even sometimes during this era—music performers would put themselves in precarious positions or even would turn up dead because they were pushed to the limits to fulfill tireless touring obligations. Today, luckily there is a greater emphasis on mental health and physical well-being to attempt to mitigate this sometimes fatal flaw in the music industry.
In the last few days, two of the bigger draws in independent country music music have put their touring schedules on pause, citing mental and physical health concerns. Though this can be frustrating for ticket holders who sometimes plan time off from work, childcare, or even travel to be able to attend these shows, the well-being of the performers feels paramount, especially when you know it’s a performer who gives their all on stage.
Last week, a note on Paul Cauthen’s social media pages read, “Hi Everyone. Starting today Paul is leaving the road and going back to Texas to take care of his mental and physical health. We all love Paul very much and we are very happy and relived that he has made this decision to put himself first. It is obviously necessary to cancel all of his shows for the forseable future and each venue will be able to provide information on cancellation and refunds. Join us in lifting up Paul and anyone near you that may be suffering.”
Cauthen’s cancellations are said to only be currently affecting his solo tour dates. Festival appearances at places such as the Jackalope Jamboree in late June, and the Unbroken Circle Fest in September are sill on for the moment, but stay tuned. Cauthen had previously announced an upper respiratory infection that resulted in him rescheduling some shows for March that will now no longer be honored.
Then on Wednesday (2-12), Colter Wall made a similar announcement, saying:
Firstly, I’d like to thank everyone for coming out to my shows. As always, you guys are the reason why I’m able to make my living singing and picking songs. Myself, the band, and entire crew are so grateful for that privilege.
That being said, I’ve made the decision to reschedule this upcoming tour to October, 2025.
My reasons for doing so are quite personal, and I’ve always valued my privacy despite the nature of my occupation. But I will simply say that some time off the road for reasons of mental and physical health are greatly needed.
Ticket sales for said tour will all be honored for their new dates, and refunds will also be available at point of purchase for those unable to make it.
I know this is not news people like to get and I don’t much like being the one to give it. Myself and my team take none of this lightly and we hope for your continued support and understanding.
Thank you,
-CW
Colter has rescheduled his remaining dates in February and early March for September and October. You can see the rescheduled dates in the graphic below.
Ever since the pandemic, the inclination to cancel shows and tours has risen significantly. But with the death of performers such as Luke Bell, Justin Townes Earle, as well as performers outside of the country fold like Liam Payne, centering mental and physical health must remain a priority, however inconvenient these cancellations are to the public.
February 12, 2025 @ 11:24 am
Good for them for having the balls to do it. Hope the stigma keeps lessening.
February 12, 2025 @ 12:07 pm
Playing shows is shit for your mental health. Acts of this size simply don’t make money touring. The ticketing companies and venues do… but unless they’re selling a tonne of merch, most modern touring is working at a loss. Imagine how demoralizing that is. Schlepping the country, living in a van with your work colleagues, losing money instead of making it. No wonder so many artists take a break. Hell, The Beatles quit touring in 1966! And in 2025, unless you’re a Paul McCartney size act, it’s pretty miserable.
The economics of modern music are fucked for people like Colter and Paul.
It’s sad.
And people make fun of me because I still buy vinyl. I’m trying to help
February 12, 2025 @ 12:21 pm
I heard maybe McMurtry say, and I’m paraphrasing, “Artists used to tour to sell records, now we sell records to sell tickets”. Either way if I’m all wrong about what was said, and who said it, how do artists make money then? If not touring? And with streaming cutting in to the sales side, where does the money come from?
I’m pretty curious about the business side, and am very far removed from it and clueless. In general, the McMurtry’s, Todd Snider, Elizabeth Cooks of the world, and the up in comers Vincent Neil Emerson, Emily Nenni’s of the world, what percentage of their income come from what? Touring, merch, records, streams, royalties? I’m just throwing this out there hoping someone will answer. Also, what do they make compared to one of the guys who wrote “Blue Jean, pick-up truck , hot bitch, Friday night” or whatever the latest Morgan Wallen single is? Thank you in advance
February 12, 2025 @ 12:32 pm
I agree with Thom’s assessment that touring can be terrible for artists’ mental heath (though some, it’s being at home that can be worse). But I would disagree that these two artists are not making money touring. Paul Cauthen is still on the club circuit in some markets, and he might not be getting rich. But he’s definitely making money. My guess is Colter Wall is doing quite well touring. I don’t think money entered into the equation for either of these decisions.
It’s the artists in the van playing for door deals who are struggling.
February 12, 2025 @ 9:02 pm
I’m pretty sure it’s not about money for Wall and much more about the sound/environment as he was encouraged to play a larger venue (approximate 5000+ capacity) in my city rather than the intimate venue he is scheduled to play (under 1000) but he wouldn’t play the larger venue. This smaller venue sold out in a few minutes and he probably could have done very well in the bigger venue due to the demand for the show. All the credit to him for forgoing the bigger payday and caring more about the music and the audience experience.
February 13, 2025 @ 4:52 pm
I am pleased to confess that I agree with everything in this comment!
February 13, 2025 @ 5:20 pm
It’s the touring that makes money.
Recordings surely doesn’t, these days.
February 12, 2025 @ 12:07 pm
I feel like the weight of touring as a country artist has gotten a lot harder, especially when non-country artists are winning their awards!
February 12, 2025 @ 12:34 pm
I’m impressed with Wall making sure refunds are available. It chaps my ass when I buy tickers for a Friday night event in March and its rescheduled to a random Tuesday in September and I’m expected to make it happen.
February 12, 2025 @ 2:08 pm
Why do Sierra and Charley tour non-stop? I saw them last year and I am seeing them again this year. It seems every tour Colter has he postpones, recently anyway. I understand he is a cowboy and likes that ranch life better than the touring one but people buy tickets and get excited to see him and then he cancels. I know of at least twice.
February 12, 2025 @ 2:45 pm
Sierra had a run of cancellations due to mental health recently. I think Charley Crockett is a machine.
February 12, 2025 @ 3:20 pm
Yes, in the summer of 2023 after Sierra was up until 4 am in the campground picking away at the Telluride Bluegrass Festival, she cancelled a string of shows, including in Michigan, which she’d cancelled in twice. Though I’ve never confirmed it, I believe it was at that time that she wrote “American Dreaming.”
Musicians are no different than the rest of us. Some are homebodies, some only feel at home on the road. Others are somewhere in between. For better or worse, it’s kind of a requisite to like to travel if you want to be a musician. It’s really important in those first few years of full-time touring for an artist/band to transition from the van to the bus. If they don’t, it can get really hard as they age. But as you find success, touring becomes less necessary. Colter Wall doesn’t need to tour at all. He does so to satisfy fans.
February 12, 2025 @ 2:50 pm
My first thought was to not feel any sympathy because they are lucky to be able to tour for a living, however I also realize that many artists slowly descend into alcoholism and drug abuse to where that is the only crutch to get them back onstage each night. If fans are still willing to buy their tickets and venues are still willing to book them after these cancellations for mental health then I would say that it’s the artist’s call. I hope they make it right with the musicians that are backing them though because they can’t cancel for mental health and be expected to maintain the gig.
February 14, 2025 @ 6:15 am
I don’t feel any weak minded excuse makers
February 12, 2025 @ 3:15 pm
Well hopefully they get better and fans can see them later this year. Im pretty excited myself, just heard charley crockett added some dates and is coming to my city. Hopefully i cam get a decent deal on tickets.
February 12, 2025 @ 3:54 pm
Must be nice to live a life where your job waits for you to get your shit back together. For the rest of us it’s show up or your done.
February 12, 2025 @ 5:12 pm
Then you should have been a musician. Comparing your job to a touring artist isn’t comparable at all.
February 12, 2025 @ 8:47 pm
All of the supporting musicians (guitar, bass, drums, techs,) are probably out the money. Noeline Hoffman posted about those gigs being rescheduled and she was a supporting act.
February 12, 2025 @ 9:27 pm
Back in 2017, I attended my worst concert. I swore to never mention it again here in the SCM comments, so I’ll just say it’s a favorite band of this site and they were going through a rough patch. It turned me off to them forever. It would have been more beneficial if they just canceled the show and I would still be a fan today. This band eventually did go on hiatus and got their shit together. But that’s what’s at stake. Put on a halfhearted, shitty concert and you will lose more fans than just rescheduling. Then those band mates are looking for new gigs. As for HOFMANN, she was supporting 10 dates. I’m sure she’ll survive. And the post I read by her was very understanding.
February 13, 2025 @ 11:57 am
I get the point of bad shows impacting the fan’s view of the artist. Reading on reddit there were multiple people who work with major acts talking about how they can’t make it through an entire gig sober which is why the pitch correction and backing tracks are needed. Bands that don’t rely on digital ‘trickery’ are going to be hit hardest by external factors (self-induced or not).
My point with mentioning Noeline Hoffman having her supporting gigs cancelled was that other acts and everyone downstream from the headline artist himself is affected by these “mental health” cancellations.
February 12, 2025 @ 9:02 pm
Have you tried being really good at what you do?
February 12, 2025 @ 9:08 pm
Tbf, that’s what FMLA is for. Not a perfect deal, but federally protected. It’s probably easier to make it happen as a musician, though
February 26, 2025 @ 2:09 pm
This is preposterously stupid comment. Have you heard of FMLA? If your job is violating your right to protected unpaid leave, I recommend you contact the labor board in your state/municipality.
If you’re self-employed, then I don’t see how you taking time off would be any different than an artist doing this.
I can’t get over the levels of stupid here.
February 12, 2025 @ 4:05 pm
Glad those men prioritized their mental health over some touring bucks.Get well and knock it into the seats when you return, Paul and Colter !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
February 12, 2025 @ 5:19 pm
Unpopular opinion:
Focusing on “mental health” is making a lot of people worse. There is one person mentioned in these comments who probably does have some schizo-type issues, and that person maybe should be getting some help. Most of them need to drink less, get more sunshine, and stay off Instagram.
February 12, 2025 @ 9:08 pm
We’ve added so much water to the discussion that nobody knows what the hell it even is anymore.
February 12, 2025 @ 9:53 pm
I definitely think there is there is a downstream effect of all the focus on mental health these days where perhaps it is exacerbating issues for some, while the upcoming generation is potentially being coddled to the point where they don’t learn how to build the mental fortitude to meet life’s challenges. All of this was potentially made worse by the pandemic, especially teenagers who went through their formative years during that era.
I don’t know how to address or solve this problem. I am not a mental health expert obviously. But I don’t take issue with people discussing it, and addressing it as a legitimate concern.
That said, I’m not sure if that is relevant to the circumstances of either Colter Wall or Paul Cauthen.
February 13, 2025 @ 3:21 pm
This current generation could never win a World War.
February 13, 2025 @ 4:46 pm
They’re more content with starting one.
February 13, 2025 @ 5:29 pm
Thanks for your service! Navy vet here. I think you’d be surprised what this generation is doing in our current military environment. It’s different than when you served, I’m guessing, but don’t believe everything you hear out read. Talk to some of your younger fellow vets. Good people.
February 14, 2025 @ 12:35 pm
WW2 was won by the whole nation (just not the military) banding together and making tough sacrifices.
This generation isn’t yielding TikToks and Starbucks to grow a victory garden.
February 14, 2025 @ 3:01 pm
Oh, I see you’re not a veteran. Well believe this, that war was won because of the service members that died all over the world. They standby to do the same. But you do you. Someone has to stay home to raise the flag.
February 14, 2025 @ 7:33 pm
America’s industrial might played a large role in winning World War 2. Our tanks won not by superior design but by pure numbers.
That tonnage happened due to the home front mobilizing behind the war.
My great-grandfather worked the railroad during the war. It was considered by the government as essential as soldiering. Hitler even sent sabotagers to blow critical railroad junctions.
The modern military suffers from the military-industrial complex. They don’t stand ready to win wars. They stand ready to make defensive contractors rich. We haven’t fought a necessary war in decades. Hopefully, that changes soon.
February 14, 2025 @ 6:07 pm
One last thing, when someone mistakenly thanks you for your service, correct them. It’s the right thing to do.
February 15, 2025 @ 1:29 am
No need to correct them, just run for the governor’s seat in Minnesota.
February 15, 2025 @ 12:10 am
Only someone who never served would hope to get into war. Why not, your life has never been on the line. Wrap yourself in the flag but understand you never stood up for your country. Not once.
February 15, 2025 @ 6:44 am
My comment firmly referred to the hope that America quits engaging in needless foreign conflicts designed to enrich defense contractors and Boeing.
By your logic, Thomas Jefferson never stood up for his country.
February 15, 2025 @ 8:39 am
This is a story about Colter Wall and Paul Cauthen cancelling shows, not about the military industrial complex, or the readiness of America’s fighting force. Please please stay on topic as opposed to constantly trying to veer into divisive culture war topics.
February 12, 2025 @ 6:00 pm
Good, but more foresight would prevent the headaches that schedulers now have to deal with.
February 13, 2025 @ 1:36 pm
Meanwhile, most of us shows up every day, often hating our job, just to pay the rent/loan, food, our childrens clothes etc. And we consider ourselves lucky if we’re not at the losing end of the paycheck when the week is done. Not to mention the other obtacles of life, such as maritial problems, health problems and so on riding on our backs during the hours on and off the job.
Poor artists.
See also; Working Man’s Blues, Merle Haggard.
February 13, 2025 @ 1:50 pm
In 2016 leading up to his death, Merle Haggard cancelled numerous shows, some last minute after people had already filed into venues. It became a whole topic, with some fans complaining, and others saying he should get off the road. So yes, even the great Merle Haggard canceled shows.
https://savingcountrymusic.com/merle-haggard-unexpectedly-takes-stage-again-after-illness/
February 13, 2025 @ 3:23 pm
Yeah, Merle on his deathbed is the same thing.
February 13, 2025 @ 2:19 pm
Colter and Paul isn’t 78 years old, and they’ve not spent 55 years on the road touring almost non-stop, playing for millions upon millions of people.
And they will never be Merle Haggard (or Willie Nelson) neither.
So that argument isn’t valuable.
February 13, 2025 @ 3:38 pm
You brought up Merle Haggard, I didn’t.
Here’s some more names: Hank Williams (29), Luke Bell (32), Justin Townes Earle (38), Eddy Shaver (38), Townes Van Zandt (52).
All of these greats died, and prematurely, because of addiction and mental health issues.
Nobody is saying your problems are less because you’re a common man, and a musician’s are more because they’re in the public eye. But fame and the shitty way the music business treats people does sure seem to exacerbate problems in a way that deserves to be recognized, at the least.
I’ve written too many obituaries for my favorite music artists. I’d rather write these kinds of stories, and take whatever heat that comes with it.
February 13, 2025 @ 4:09 pm
No, I referred to a song written (and sung) by Merle, who address the chores of being a worker.
But fine, use a dying old legend as an excuse for two never-been’s.
February 15, 2025 @ 1:52 am
Colter isnt a never been anyway not to me, to me someone like Beyonce is a never been or Taylor Swift. Granted Colter or Paul will never be a household name or commercially successful but guess what thats why they appeal to me. There are plenty of “never beens” outside of mainstream chart or commercial music that are more talented than people who have been “beens”. Given how rubbish most modern mainstream music is give me more “Never beens” like Colter Wall. Hey most of the people Trigger promotes on his site are “Never beens” and I hope he continues to serve them up for us.
February 15, 2025 @ 8:37 am
Sofus and CountryKnight constantly take the most cynical perspective on any subject, and try to figure out how to leverage them to talk about the culture war topics they want to talk about, exploiting the openness of this comments section. It is unhelpful, and it is injurious to this website. If as Sofus says, the thinks all modern music sucks, as do all modern artists, I’m not sure why he’s here. I’m not here to discourage anyone from reading or even commenting. But I do wish some would stop trying to take the most severe, most negative view on every single artist or subject broached here in a way that turns off others from wanting to share their perspective, or even be part of this community.
February 13, 2025 @ 4:20 pm
P.S.
Those you mention, died because of their addiction. Not because of their mental health.
As someone who grew up with a pill-popping binge drinker, I can attest to the fact that it’s egoism that drives them, not some “oh, poor me, the world’s too much for my sensitive mind”.
The next high is what it’s all about, not some suffering soul. If anything, it’s the one’s who exists around the addicts that suffers.
Artists in general are ego-centric assholes. That’s what it takes to climb to the top. Some makes it, most does not. The greatest asshole wins the race.
Sad, but true.
February 14, 2025 @ 7:40 pm
I am not familiar with every artist’s character on that list.
I do know that Hank could be a royal jackass. So was JTE. Townes was an ornery fellow. I don’t know enough about Bell and Shaver.
If anything, their addictions diverted focus away from their jerk characters and made them into martyrs. Hank rightly lost his Grand Old Opry gig but the organization has become the bad guy since Hank died young. Even though, anyone in the position of employer would have canned Hank.
A jerk without addiction is despised. A jerk with addictions is considered a tragedy.
February 26, 2025 @ 2:28 pm
Yeah and artists don’t get paid when they don’t tour. What’s your point?
February 13, 2025 @ 3:23 pm
Don’t want your motive to be questioned or want to hide the real reason?
Cite mental health.
February 14, 2025 @ 10:06 am
I recently saw some news around Camila Cabello (I think?) and how she was performing in front of a half filled crowd (lots of open seats). One of the commenters said ‘Most would just site a mental health issue and cancel the show’. I don’t think this would be the case for Paul and Colter, but wanted to throw it out there… does anyone know if they had low ticket sales? I think they do pretty well filling seats, but just wanted to check. Is citing a mental health issue a way performers avoid the potential embarrassment of low ticket sales?
February 14, 2025 @ 10:07 am
JTE’s passing was attributed at the time to not being on the road or making music during covid attrubuted to worsening mental health and drug use didnt they? His problems took a nosedive when he couldnt work but he had relapsed many times previously I think. He wanted to be on the road and working.
Merle Haggard cancelling due to ill health is completely understandable and also the chance you take when your seeing someone of that age and that iconic. Also someone said Colter Wall and Paul Cauthen will never be Merle Haggard or Willie Nelson well I think they are just being themselves.
My own opinion (i havent listened to Paul Cauthen too much to comment) but I think Colter Wall has the talent to be a great im just not sure he wants it, im not sure hes as committed to making music as wed like him to be because he has a life outside of that. I suppose for him its finding a balance. I love his music so much I wish hed commit to music a bit more but I certainly cant wait for the new album he has in the can and hope the release of it isnt delayed by any touring postponements.
February 15, 2025 @ 2:05 am
One thing that the rest of us have to worry about is these guys are struggling doing something they love or what would have started out as a mere hobby, many of us struggle with our own mental health stuck in dead end jobs that we dont enjoy. It doesnt give out a positive message to them if even people who should be happier than them struggle to find happiness too.
When someone picks up a guitar or any musical instrument for the first time your not expecting to make a living from it, it starts out as a hobby. Surely if it then becomes something you make a living out of it’s more of a blessing than a curse.
March 1, 2025 @ 3:59 pm
Might have something to do with the track that just dropped from Kacy Lee Anderson? There’s some scathing lines in there, as well as a couple vague accusations. Mighta got word it was releasing soon and he freaked out?
Anyway, I’m a Brad Wall hater so don’t take this too serious. But yes, I still think Coward is written about his son.