Earlier this week when it was announced that Mumford & Sons were going to be postponing three tour dates due to bassist Ted Dwane having a blood clot on his brain, the band assured fans that they would still be performing at their Bonnaroo stop.
Yesterday, the band had to break the news to those fans that they would not be making to Tennessee for the annual indie festival due to Dwane’s recovery from surgery. To the surprise of many or maybe not, Jack Johnson has been asked to fill in the void that the band had left on the schedule.
According to a statement released by the festival organizers, upon getting the phone call from the organizers, Johnson summoned his band to get it together that they were heading to Tennessee to fill in for the folk-indie band.
“I’ve got a lot of lyrics and chords to relearn by Saturday night,” he admitted when interviewed after the fact. “I was here to play the first Bonnaroo and it is a very special festival to my band. We are excited to hit the stage again.”
Billboard reports that the festival organizers had been simultaneously sending request to both Johnson and Darius Rucker from Hootie & the Blowfish to fill in for the band. Johnson had already been at the Manchester location for a surprise press appearance for his upcoming new album, From Here to Now to You while Rucker’s tour schedule made it almost impossible for him to make it since he would be playing a show in Baltimore in Saturday.
On Thursday, when the band had the unfortunate task of breaking the news to their fans, they had written on their Facebook page that Dwane was actually doing very well following the surgery. In order to give the bassist time to relax and recover properly, they had decided it was in their best interest to just nix the festival stop as well as next week’s stop at Colorado’s Telluride Bluegrass Festival.
“If we could’ve we would’ve, you know that about us,” the post read. “We trust that you can respect our collective desire to encourage Ted to make a full recovery, and that this is based purely on the medical advice we have received.”
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