Band pledges to continue cross-Canada tour and address controversy

Canadian pop-rock group Hedley continues their cross-Canada tour tonight with a show in Barrie, Ontario before turning to shows in Ottawa, Laval, and Atlantic Canada.

Hedley performs at the Abbotsford Centre as part of their Cageless Tour – photo Jorge Para

The tour will see the popular Canadian band taking on eighteen other dates from Quebec City to Kelowna, BC, before wrapping up on March 23.

In making the decision to go on with the tour – and to respectfully withdraw their award nominations from consideration at this year’s JUNOs – Hedley also made the following statement:

“In the coming days – and throughout this current tour – we intend to take responsibility, and talk about how we have let some people down, and what we intend to do about it.

That starts right now. As a band, we have decided to withdraw our name from consideration for any awards at the JUNOs. We do not wish to be a distraction at Canadian music’s biggest night or to, in any way, take the focus away from the tremendous honour that is the JUNO awards.

We want to ensure that everyone understands our collective commitment to change, and to do better, is real. Saying a rock’n’roll lifestyle was to blame – or saying certain things happened because we were younger – isn’t good enough. We owe it to our families, our crew, our friends – and most of all, our fans – to do and be better.

The easy thing to do would be to cancel the tour and hide. We don’t intend to do that. We intend to start making positive changes, starting right now.”

For tickets to upcoming shows visit www.hedleyonline.com

More Photos from the Abbotsford, BC show