Kings of Leon Cancel Upcoming Shows Due to Family ‘Medical Crisis’

On Thursday (Sept. 23), Kings of Leon canceled two of their upcoming concerts, including a scheduled Sept. 24 appearance at this weekend's Eddie Vedder-curated Ohana Festival in California, due to a "medical crisis" involving the mother of three of the rock act's members.

BettyAnn Murphy, mom to Kings of Leon frontman Caleb Followill, drummer Nathan Followill and bassist Jared Followill, fell ill as the band toured the U.S. over the past two months. But she "took a turn for the worse" this week, necessitating the musicians fly home to see her "until the time comes to say goodbye," they explained. That meant Thursday's gig in Mountain View, Calif., in addition to Friday's at Ohana, had to be abandoned. The fate of their remaining dates — due to continue into October — is currently unclear.

The band writes, "Our mother, who many of our fans know and love, has been dealing with a medical crisis for the last several weeks and while it has been hard to take the stage each night, it has been the love and energy from you, our fans, that has gotten us though."

However, just before Kings of Leon's performance at the Los Angeles Forum on Tuesday (Sept. 21), the group "learned she took a turn for the worse. It was a hard show to get through, but you held us up that night in a way we will never forget. Immediately following the show, we all flew home, where we will remain by her side until the time comes to say goodbye. Our show tonight at Shoreline Amphitheatre and our appearance at Ohana Festival this weekend are cancelled but we wanted to say thank you to all our fans, to Eddie, and to the entire Pearl Jam family for supporting us."

Kings of Leon — the three brothers and their cousin, guitarist Matthew Followill —were on the road supporting their latest LP When You See Yourself, which emerged in March. It's the band's eighth studio effort after past albums such as Mechanical Bull (2013) and Only by the Night (2008).