Tyler’s vocal injury ‘more serious’
Aerosmith frontman Steven Tyler has fractured his larynx, forcing the band to postpone its remaining tour dates until next year.
“Unfortunately, Steven’s vocal injury is more serious than initially thought,” Aerosmith said in a statement posted to its Facebook account on Friday. “His doctor has confirmed that in addition to the damage to his vocal cords, he fractured his larynx which requires ongoing care.”
Tyler, 75, had previously announced that he had injured his vocal cords during his last show with the band Sept. 9 in New York, preventing him from performing for the next 30 days. At the time, Aerosmith postponed six tour dates.
However, with Friday’s health development, the band said in its statement it would postpone “all the currently scheduled Peace Out shows” until “sometime in 2024.”
Aerosmith assured fans that Tyler is “receiving the best medical treatment available to ensure his recovery is swift, but given the nature of a fracture, he is being told patience is essential.”
“I am heartbroken to not be out there with Aerosmith, my brothers and the incredible Black Crowes, rocking with the best fans in the world,” Tyler said in the Facebook statement, referring to the Atlanta rock band that had been touring with Aerosmith. “I promise we will be back as soon as we can!”
Murakami hosts ghost story event:
Japanese novelist Haruki Murakami hosted a ghost story reading event in Tokyo amid growing attention before the announcement of this year’s Nobel Prize in literature, an award he is a perennial favorite to win.
Murakami said at Thursday’s reading that he enjoys scary stories and wanted to write more of them. The event featured one from the 18th-century collection “Tales of Moonlight and Rain,” which intrigued Murakami since his childhood and is known to have inspired his work.
The classic collection written by Akinari Ueda and called “Ugetsu Monogatari” in Japanese explores a blurry borderline between the real and surreal, which Murakami said in a guide he contributed to a 2021 magazine made him wonder which side he was on.
Borders and walls are important motifs in Murakami’s writing. Protagonists in his stories often travel through walls or between two worlds and encounter mysterious, exotic characters.
While Murakami has said he grew up mostly reading Western novels, some experts have also noted the influence of Ueda’s stories in some of Murakami’s work.
Murakami has been a candidate for the Nobel Prize in literature for more than a decade, and the winner of the 2023 prize is scheduled to be announced Thursday. If he wins, he would will be first Japanese writer since Kenzaburo Oe in 1994 to be named a Nobel laureate.
The pending Nobel Prize did not come up at the ghost story event.
Critic Rex Reed is 85. Singer Don McLean is 78. Actor Avery Brooks is 75. Musician Sting is 72. Actor Lorraine Bracco is 69. Singer Freddie Jackson is 68. Singer Robbie Nevil is 65. Actor Joey Slotnick is 55. TV host Kelly Ripa is 53. Singer Tiffany is 52. Actor Efren Ramirez is 50. Actor Christopher Larkin is 36.