Donald Glover revealed why he canceled his Childish Gambino tour last year.
The actor and musician, 42, performed at Tyler, the Creator’s Camp Flog Knaw Carnival on Saturday and told the crowd at Dodger Stadium that he suffered a stroke last year, which forced him to end his The New World Tour after only 18 shows.
“I was having lots of fun, really loving seeing you guys out there, and I had a really bad pain in my head in Louisiana,” Glover said, as seen in a social media video from the concert.
“I did the show anyway,” he continued. “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.’”
Glover joked that he felt like he was “still copying” Jamie Foxx, who suffered his own near-fatal stroke in 2023.
“That’s really like the second thing,” he stated. “The first thing was like, ‘I’m letting everybody down.’”
The “Mr. and Mrs. Smith” star explained that on top of his stroke, he also broke his foot at the time.
“I always promise Ireland I’m gonna be there, and I still haven’t been, and they found a hole in my heart. So I had this surgery, and then I had to have another surgery,” he shared.
“They say everybody has two lives, and the second life starts when you realize you have one,” Glover went on. “You got one life, guys. And I gotta be honest, the life I’ve lived with you guys has been such a blessing. I love singing and performing for you guys.”
Glover concluded, “As my wife [Michelle White] says, ‘If this life is a flavor, as soon as I’m done, give me another scoop.’ You should be living your life how you want because if we have to do this again, it can only get better.”
Last October, Glover canceled the remaining dates on his tour due to health reasons, though he didn’t clarify the extent of his issues.
“After my show in New Orleans, I went to the hospital in Houston to make sure of an ailment that had become apparent. It became clear I would not perform that night,” he wrote in a social media statement at the time.
Glover continued, “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. My path to recovery is something I need to confront seriously.”
Glover’s tour began in Aug. 2024 and was expected to run until Feb. 2025. He performed his final show on Sept. 7, 2024 in New Orleans.
Glover previously said that the tour would mark the end of his Childish Gambino persona.
“It really was just like, ‘Oh, it’s done,’” the “Community” star told the New York Times last year. “It’s not fulfilling. And I just felt like I didn’t need to build in this way anymore.”
