Bon Iver won’t be touring his new album due to “profound anxiety”
Justin Vernon, also known as Bon Iver, has opened up in a recent interview about his decision not to tour his new album, Sable, Fable.
Vernon has just released his first full album in six years earlier this month. Sable, Fable explores pain and peace in equal measure. However, the singer recently revealed to The Guardian that he struggled with anxiety to such a level that he “couldn’t even leave the house.”
In 2016, “profound anxiety” led him to cancel a European tour. It took three years to fully patch himself together, resulting in the release of album i, i.
However, like many, Vernon expressed difficulties that arose from the pandemic. In 2022, he set off on tour; his enthusiasm lasted all but a week, after which Vernon “immediately started having this panic, exhaustion.” The dark situation didn’t get much better, as the singer felt trapped until the end of his tour.
He was adamant to ensure that it never happened again. In September 2023, he sold or donated all his live gear: “If I didn’t, I was almost afraid that I could get pulled back into it accidentally.” Unfortunately, Vernon couldn’t shake this cloud for another year.
Finally, the singer reached a conclusive realisation that helped reframe his troubles. My problems weren’t “that hard,” he realised. “I could see the quality of my character slowly diminishing from trying to be too much to too many people,” he continued.
If touring was the problem, he hypothesised, then “just stop it.” Despite the great reception of his new album, Vernon has finally understood his limits, and as a result, he will not be touring his latest album.
Far Out wrote in a review of the album: “Justin Vernon’s first full release in six years isn’t a reckoning like much of today’s music that explores life’s complicated ambiguities. Instead, it tackles two distinct segments: the pain of the past and the hope for the future. As a result, Bon Iver becomes a conduit for reflections on everything that pushes us between light and dark, finding that sweet spot where despair transforms into liberation.”
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