John Mayer canceled a concert in New York with his rock band Dead & Company after his 94-year-old father suffered a medical emergency on Wednesday.
Mayer didn’t go into detail about the cause of the health scare, but wrote on an Instagram Story posted Wednesday that his father Richard Mayer was “transported to the ER where he received much-needed and great care,” a representative for Mayer confirmed to USA TODAY.
“He is now fairly stable and will continue to undergo some procedures, but as you can understand, I have to stay in NYC and can’t play tonight’s show in Saratoga Springs,” Mayer added.
On Twitter, the band confirmed they were canceling the show “due to unforeseen circumstances.”
The band – consisting of Mayer, musicians Oteil Burbridge and Jeff Chimenti, and former Grateful Dead members Bob Weir, Mickey Hart and Bill Kreutzmann – is currently headlining a summer tour. The remaining scheduled performances are unaffected, the band tweeted.
A former high school principal and occasional musician, Richard told People in 2007 he was initially skeptical of his son’s dream of music stardom.
“My experience in music was everybody had a job,” Richard said. “We were teachers, plumbers, and on the weekends we’d play. So, it boiled down to saying, ‘John, you have to have a Plan B.’ And John said, ‘I don’t have a Plan B. This is it.’ “
He added: “Trying to get him ‘within the lines,’ as you say, I failed and he won. And he was right.”
Released in June 2001, Mayer’s debut album “Room for Squares” peaked at No. 8 on the Billboard 200 chart and sold 5 million copies. Mayer also went on to score eight No. 1 hits on Billboard’s adult alternative chart.
Despite not seeing eye to eye on his career path, Mayer told People about the deep admiration he has for his father.
“My father is the most upstanding man I’ve ever met,” Mayer said. “He’s not the kind of guy who says, ‘Don’t cash that for a week.’ He wouldn’t have written the check if he couldn’t cash it. He’s never ventured something that he couldn’t complete.”
Dead & Company’s next concert is scheduled for Friday night in Bristow, Virginia, according to the band’s official website.
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