Korn tour called off due to illness

Rock band Korn cut short its set Saturday at the UK Download Festival in London and has canceled the remaining 15 dates of its European tour because singer Jonathan Davis has been hospitalized in England for treatment of a blood disease.

In a posting on the group’s website, Davis wrote that he began getting bruises over his body in the last two weeks and saw a doctor after feeling weak following a Friday performance. Davis said test results indicated that he has idiopathic thrombocytopenic purpura, or ITP, an autoimmune disease that results in a severe reduction in blood platelets.

“If I continued to head-bang on stage,” he wrote, “I could have had a brain hemorrhage and dropped dead on the spot.” A band spokeswoman said Monday that Davis is expected to be released today.

Doctors have advised him to take a few weeks off and rest, but the group is still expected to headline the summer Family Values Tour of North America, scheduled to open July 27 in Virginia Beach, Va.

Randy Lewis