Gord Downie of The Tragically Hip Diagnosed with Terminal Brain Cancer

Gord Downie of legendary Canadian rock band The Tragically has been diagnosed with terminal brain cancer. The revelation was made today through a note on the band’s official website. You can read that full statement below.

Downie was diagnosed back in December and has since been dealing with the matter privately, surrounded by the support of his family and band. Despite this terrible situation, The Tragically Hip plan on doing one more tour – details will be made available later this week. As you may already know, the band is slated to release their new album, Man Machine Poem, on June 17.

Over the course of The Tragically Hip’s 30+ year run, they have largely been viewed as Canada’s quintessential rock band, thanks to song subject matter, personality and blue collar attitude.

Here is The Tragically Hip’s statement:

Hello friends.

We have some very tough news to share with you today, and we wish it wasn’t so.

A few months ago, in December, Gord Downie was diagnosed with terminal brain cancer.

Since then, obviously, he’s endured a lot of difficult times, and he has been fighting hard. In privacy along with his family, and through all of this, we’ve been standing by him.

So after 30-some years together as The Tragically Hip, thousands of shows, and hundreds of tours…

We’ve decided to do another one.

This feels like the right thing to do now, for Gord, and for all of us.

What we in The Hip receive, each time we play together, is a connection; with each other; with music and it’s magic; and during the shows, a special connection with all of you, our incredible fans.

So, we’re going to dig deep, and try to make this our best tour yet.

We hope you can come out and join us this summer – details and dates will be coming this week.

And we sincerely thank all of you, for your continued love and support,

Paul, GordD, Johnny, Rob, GordS