Donald Glover is—or rather, was—in the midst of a tour of his soon-to-be-retired Childish Gambino rap persona; said tour has now come to an abrupt close, after Glover announced on social media Friday that he was canceling more than two dozen remaining tour dates due to an unnamed health condition. Writing that, after a show in New Orleans on September 7, “I went to the hospital in Houston to make sure of an ailment that had become apparent,” Glover (who’d previously postponed the remaining dates of the North American leg of the tour) now writes that “My path to recovery is something I need to confront seriously. With that said, we have made the difficult decision to cancel the remainder of the North American tour and the UK and European dates. Tickets will be refunded at point of purchase.”
Glover doesn’t state what the health problem is, but does note that he’ll be undergoing surgery some time soon to address it. In the social media post, the actor-writer-director-producer-musician stated that, “I want nothing more than to bring this show to the fans and perform. Until then, thanks for love, privacy, and support.”
Glover has been “retiring” the Childish Gambino name for fully 7 years at this point, having first announced his intentions to walk away from the stage name way back in 2017. In a recent chicken-based interview, he eulogized the name, referring it to as being like a comedy characters whose time had come and gone. There’s also presumably also the fact that the dude is ridiculously busy: He has his various duties on Amazon’s Mr. And Mrs. Smith show, and the Lando movie he and his brother are now responsible for writing, and Bando Stone And The New World, the in-production film that the final Childish Gambino album is meant to be in support of. No word yet on how any of those other projects will be affected by Glover’s current health issues, but for now, Childish Gambino fans will just have to wait for word on when he might be back to finish the show.