Slipknot Drummer Sidelined With Ruptured Appendix

Slipknot's Joey Jordison has a burst appendix, and the band have cancelled the rest of their tour dates this month and in September so he can rest.

Slipknot cancelled two gigs over the last week because Jordison was hospitalized.

"We are very sorry we had to cancel this leg of the tour," bassist Paul "#2" Gray said in a statement. "As you know touring is our life, getting in front of you guys and playing keeps this band alive. So it hurts us as much as you that we had to do this.

"There are personal issues in the band that need to be taken care of for us to continue touring. Let me emphasize Joey is not dead/dying, he is fine.

"We have been working hard for the last year and a half on the All Hope Is Gone touring cycle and it catches up to you, as I said earlier, but I am very sorry. We had to cancel the two-week run but are desperately trying to make those shows up on our October tour.

"We are not cancelling the October tour, the band is not breaking up, we are all alive. I am setting the record straight, if you don't hear it from one of us in this band then it is bullshit. We are human and shit happens and that's how life goes but we are making the best of it right now as should you."

Slipknot plan to release a deluxe edition of their 1999 self-titled debut on Sept. 9 for the record's 10th anniversary.