Childish Gambino has revealed the shocking reasons why he canceled a large number of dates on his New World Tour last year.
During his performance at Camp Flog Gnaw Festival on Saturday night (November 22), the artist (real name Donald Glover) explained that it was due to his health.
"I had a really bad pain in my head in Louisiana, and I did the show anyway,” he told the crowd. "I couldn’t really see well, so when we went to Houston, I went to the hospital, and the doctor was like, 'You had a stroke.' And the first thing I thought was like, 'Oh, here I am still copying Jamie Foxx.'"
"That’s really like the second thing," he added after the joke. "The first thing was like, ‘I’m letting everybody down.'"
That wasn’t the only issue that he dealt with. Gambino continued on, detailing additional health scares that fundamentally changed his life. "I broke my foot," he explained. "They found a hole in my heart. So I had this surgery, and then I had to have another surgery."
"They say everyone has two lives, and the second life starts when you realize you have one," he added. "You should be living your life how you want. If we have to do this again, it can only get better."
Gambino’s explanation is the additional context that his fans were looking for after he abruptly canceled his shows last year, releasing a lengthy statement on X at the time suggesting he was dealing with health issues.
"After my show in New Orleans, I went to the hospital in Houston to make sure of an ailment that had become apparent," he wrote at the time. "After being assessed, it became clear I would not perform that night, and after more tests, I could not perform the rest of the U.S. tour in the time asked. As of now, I have surgery scheduled and need time out to heal."