The Cowboys Fringants recently announced that they would be postponing their European tour planned for this fall by a year. The musicians gave singer Karl Tremblay time to rest well between his chemotherapy treatments.
“Karl really wanted to keep doing shows this summer,” Jean-François Pauzé, the lyricist of Cowboys Fringants, said on Friday on the sidelines of a rehearsal of the musical Pub Royal.
• Also read: The world of Cowboys Fringants comes to life in “Pub Royal”.
“But at some point we said to him: Do you need this? Take time to relax. This could be the best decision. […] Karl dealt a serious blow this summer. He was fragile. Despite his condition, we still played at about ten festivals.”
Among these concerts, the one at the Quebec Summer Festival will go down in history. Due to the weather, the show was initially canceled, but was postponed at the last minute a few days later. And the emotion was there.
“It was historic,” says Jean-François. Before the show, we arranged with our technicians to have a teleprompter in case Karl had to sit down and I had to sing a song or two with the audience. He was more tired at this point. It was no surprise to us that he sat down for a bit. The public saw this more dramatically than we did. But we expected it to happen. Karl is a very proud guy and he didn’t want to show any signs of weakness. It was an anthology show. It was emotional. It was very cool.”
How is Karl Tremblay, who celebrated his 47th birthday a few days ago, doing today? “He goes as he goes,” replies Jean-François. Some days are better than others. It depends on the day, these are difficult treatments. But he perseveres. We watch hockey, we have fun.”
Photos of Karl Tremblay recording songs at home recently circulated. Jean-François Pauzé confirms that a new Cowboys album will be released this winter, which will include the five new songs written for the Pub Royal show.
“The album is almost completely recorded. We have maybe three or four days ahead of us. Karl took over all the votes. The background vocals remain [chœurs] make, and small instrumental adjustments.”