Amanda Palmer cancels 2013 tour dates to be with friend battling cancer

Amanda Palmer has posted a blog entry on her website explaining that she will cancel all of her upcoming 2013 tour commitments to stay with her best friend Anthony as he battles Leukemia.

“[M]y best friend is really sick and his future is uncertain,” Palmer says. “So i am going to stay with him while he goes through this.”

Though Palmer notes that she struggled with the decision to make the cancelations for months, she ultimately came to the conclusion to cancel as she was “imagining a world in which he left like Becca [a friend who recently passed away] suddenly, in the middle of the night. and imagining what i would give to be able to be with him one last time, to abide by him, to be present with him as he faced the music. and i know, i’d give anything. any forward momentum in my career, any number of record sales, any amount of success. anything. because if i wasn’t willing to do that: what is my life even worth? why bother to be successful? if i can’t throw it away and sit by my friend when he’s this sick…who the fuck would i be? really….who?”

Palmer goes on say,  “I said, at the beginning of this, that i felt like i’m letting a lot of people down. Having written this….i actually don’t believe that. I believe that you know me. i believe that you trust me. and i believe that actually, i’d be letting you down if i decided to leave my best friend hanging and leave on tour anyway. because that’s not who you’d want me to be.”

All tickets are refundable and some dates are being rescheduled.

Palmer and The Grand Theft Orchestra will still perform Prince's Purple Rain at Terminal 5 in New York on New Year's Eve. Tickets are still available for that event.