Refusedin Dennis Lyxzén kertoo tänä kesänä saamastaan sydänkohtauksesta ja vahvistaa, että bändin jäähyväiskiertue jatkuu koko vuoden 2025

Kirjoittanut Arto Mäenpää - 6.10.2024

Ruotsalaisen hardcore punk -legenda Refusedin tarun piti tulla päätökseen tänä kesänä, mutta yhtyeen laulaja Dennis Lyxzénin saama sydänkohtaus kesäkuussa pakotti yhtyeen laittamaan suunnitelmansa uusiksi. Nyt Lyxzén on julkaissut omalla YouTube-kanavallaan virallisen videon, jonka mukaan bändin jäähyväiskiertue tulee jatkumaan vuoteen 2025 ja sisältämään alun perin kaavaillun 15 keikan sijaan kaiken kaikkiaan jopa 50 keikkaa ympäri maapalloa. Lyxzén kertoo videolla sydänkohtauksestaan sekä yhtyeen suunnitelmista seuraavaa:

“So on the 13th of June this summer, I had a massive heart attack. I was at a hotel in Uppsala. We [Refused] were getting ready to do our comeback show.  We hadn’t played in over four years, we were supposed to play a huge festival in Stockholm the next day.

And I woke up with insane chest pains. Felt like I was on fire. It was pretty horrible. But I was mere minutes away from one of the best hospitals in Sweden, and I’m insanely grateful for the medical system that we have set up in Sweden.

Artikkeli jatkuu mainoksen jälkeenMainos päättyy

They blew up some arteries in my heart, and made sure that I am doing pretty well. It’s hereditary. I’m trying to be like, the healthiest person alive, but that didn’t help. But then again, my dad had a stroke when he was in his 50s, my uncle had a heart attack when he was in this late 40s, my grandad had a heart attack, so on and so forth. So it wasn’t really much that I could do to prevent this from happening.

And by doctor’s account, me living a really healthy lifestyle probably made it so that I didn’t have a heart attack earlier. This, of course, led to the fact that, well, that Stockholm show didn’t happen and everything over the summer got canceled. And I told myself, I need to take a break from everything.

So the summer, I didn’t do anything. I didn’t even… I didn’t answer emails, I didn’t play guitar. I didn’t do anything, which was extremely, extremely boring, and that is why I haven’t been doing any episodes.

Artikkeli jatkuu mainoksen jälkeen
Mainos päättyy

And then I took a decision that most of the activities that was planned for this fall and winter was all going to be moved or canceled. So I wanted to talk a little bit about that, and my plans for the future, and how my different projects and bands have been affected by this and stuff like that.

I’m feeling pretty great under the circumstances. I feel really good. I lost cardio, which was kind of frustrating. But I’m working on getting my cardio back. And apart from that, the only thing is the mental aspect of having lived through a weird trauma like this is that I’m super sensitive now. So as soon as anything in my body hurts remotely, I’m like, ‘What is this? What’s happening?’, which is super common.

And that’s something that I need to get over, and sort of put myself in a situation where I hope this is not going to happen again. With correct medicine, and so on, and so forth, I should be able to live a life as full-on as before. So that’s why I haven’t been posting. That’s why I haven’t been active here lately, but I’m back. I feel really good and I feel really optimistic about the future.”

“We went out pretty hard with a statement saying that Refused is breaking up next year. We’re doing a farewell tour, and that we’re releasing ‘A Shape Of Punk To Come‘ 25th year anniversary edition.

Artikkeli jatkuu mainoksen jälkeen
Mainos päättyy

The day when I had my heart attack, we were supposed to go out with a press release saying, ‘Refused are fucking dead’ — which is insane, of course. The festival in Stockholm was to be like the starting point, and then we were supposed to do 15 shows, 15 shows, over this fall and winter, before we were supposed to pack it in. That was the original plan. And then I have a heart attack, and everything changed.

And obviously everything this fall got moved or canceled. And we said, what are we going to do next year? And after this conversation, we said, let’s do it, but let’s do it for real. The tour dates for the U.S. tour are already out, and a couple of those shows are already sold out, which is fantastic.

We’re looking into festivals over the summer. We’re looking into doing a European tour. We’re looking at South America, Australia — anything that we can fit into it. We’re finishing off in Sweden next fall/winter. That’s the tentative plan for the next year. I would love to play anywhere we can.

But of course, life, as you know, logistics, timing, economy, you know, families, etc, etc…. We won’t be able to play everywhere, which is a shame. But the good news is that instead of 15 shows, we might end up doing something maybe like 50 shows next year, which is pretty fantastic.

Artikkeli jatkuu mainoksen jälkeen
Mainos päättyy

Yeah, so that’s the plan for Refused. We’re doing a full year of touring next year, a little bit of a celebration of ‘The Shape” record, and also a celebration of a long, cool career that we had together. And we want people to come out.

And if you want to hear any songs, let us know we play all the songs people want to hear. And then that ‘Shape‘ 25 year anniversary edition will come out. It’s pretty awesome, I might do an unboxing here if I get it in reasonable time. Yeah. So that, that’s what we got in store for for Refused.”