adam kay tour australia

This Is Going to Hurt writer Adam Kay tours Australia for first time with his diaries of a junior doctor

ABC Entertainment

Topic: Arts, Culture and Entertainment

Adam Kay brings the stage show based on his bestselling memoir This Is Going to Hurt to Australia this month. ( Supplied: Charlie Clift )

During the pandemic, former doctor Adam Kay tried to return to medicine.

Now a writer and comedian — best known for his bestselling memoir This Is Going to Hurt — Kay quit his job as a junior doctor in the UK in 2010 and his name was taken off the medical register five years later.

In 2020, when the National Health Service (NHS) called out for retired and former doctors to join the fight against COVID-19, he tried to re-join the profession.

"They had this hotline, and I phoned them up, and I told them everything I'd done and when I last worked, and they said, 'Thanks very much. We'll be in touch.' And then they emailed me a couple of weeks later saying, 'No, we're fine, thanks,'" Kay recalls.

"It was very insulting. Why didn't they want a labour-ward doctor who's not worked for a decade?" he adds, with a laugh.

Kay writes that his book is "simply one doctor's experiences, some degree of insight on an individual level into what the job really entails". ( Supplied: Pan Macmillan )

While Kay may have been rejected by the NHS, he's been embraced by readers and audiences around the world: He embarks on his first Australian tour this month, playing sold-out theatres across the country.

This Is Going to Hurt is the basis of his live show, and comes off the back of February's free-to-air premiere of the TV adaptation, written by Kay and starring Ben Whishaw (Skyfall; Paddington).

Published in 2017, This Is Going to Hurt is a collection of diary entries written between 2004 and 2010. They detail his experiences as a young doctor specialising in obstetrics and gynaecology (or "brats and twats"): from the first caesarean section he performed; to the strange things people insert in their vaginas; to the toll being an overworked, underpaid doctor had on his personal relationships; through to the birth complication that led him to leave medicine for good.

The memoir is a passionate defence of the NHS, which at the same time highlights the systematic issues it faces — especially in terms of the wellbeing of healthcare staff.

A memoir about a junior doctor

When Kay set out to publish his diaries, he was working as a writer on TV comedies, and had performed sections of them at the Edinburgh Fringe. He never expected the book would resonate the way it did.

"I've been blown away with its success," says Kay.

This Is Going to Hurt won four National Book Awards in 2018, including book of the year and new writer of the year. ( Getty Images: Mike Marsland )

"I think people are fascinated at peeking behind the blue curtain, knowing what a doctor's life involves, and also there's clearly an innate love of disgusting stories," he says.

"That all colluded to mean that lots of people bought it."

The book has sold more than 2.5 million copies and been translated into 37 languages.

"I thought I was writing a very parochial, particular story; it was just my story," Kay says.

But he soon started to get messages from doctors, not only from similar countries like Australia, New Zealand and Canada, but from Venezuela, Chad and Belarus.

"All these people said, 'This could be set on my ward.' And I think that's when I thought, 'I think I'm onto something here,'" he says.

"Because I'd been so open, which is something that doctors traditionally don't do, I became a bit of an agony uncle for medics … I was glad that they felt they could speak to me."

Turning a memoir into a TV series

The TV adaptation of This Is Going to Hurt premiered on the BBC in the UK and on Binge in Australia in 2022. The series not only follows a junior doctor called Adam Kay — a fictionalised version of the author, played by Whishaw — but trainee doctor Shruti Acharya (Ambika Mod from One Day ).

The series follows Adam as he battles professional complaints made against him — first by a patient and later by a colleague. Meanwhile Shruti struggles with her mental health and a lack of support from her colleagues and hospital administration.

"I wanted the TV show to have a point," he says.

"I wanted to focus it really firmly on the mental wellbeing of doctors. And I wanted it to be less gaggy and funny than the book, because I wanted people to lean in and take note.

"It's essentially a show about Shruti more than it is about Adam. And, sadly, Shruti is based on people who I knew."

In the UK, one doctor dies by suicide every three weeks, and a nurse takes their own life every three days.

"There can't now be many people who work in a clinical setting over here who don't know someone who's taken their own life," says Kay.

He wanted to make sure the message was not just "brushed under the carpet", as it usually is.

"I knew I'd reach a lot more people through a TV show — it got 10 million people watching that — and that's more than I'll reach in a lifetime of standing up on stage and writing books."

That means 10 million people also saw a version of Kay he cheerfully describes as an "arsehole": rude to patients and nurses, sarcastic, arrogant.

Kay praises Whishaw's performance: "Despite doing some fairly despicable things, you still feel for him, because there's a warmth there and a vulnerability." ( Supplied: ABC TV )

"I could have written the version where that character is a superhero, but that's very boring telly," says Kay.

"I wanted to show the pressures of the job and what that does not just to a relationship and family and friends, I wanted to see the destruction on the individual as well. It's impossible, really, to work a hundred hours a week and at the end of it be unscathed."

At the 2023 BAFTAs, the series earned Kay the award for writing for TV drama and Whishaw best leading actor. Kay dedicated his speech to junior doctors.

"I was paid 25 per cent more in real terms than junior doctors are paid today. And if the government don't sort that out, they've got the most enormous problem on their hands," he said.

Comedy during COVID

Instead of returning to the NHS during the pandemic, Kay continued to perform live comedy — or at least he tried to.

He tried Zoom gigs and even had a crack at performing at a COVID-safe event where the audience watched comedians from their cars, with their radios tuned to the right frequency.

"Instead of clapping or laughing, they would do the windscreen wipers or flash their lights. And that was so weird. It was like being a stand-up comedian car in the film Cars," he says.

"At that point, I sat it out until we were allowed into actual theatres again."

Kay published a second memoir, Undoctored, in 2022, which tracks his life after medicine, interspersed with memories from medical school. ( Supplied: Twitter/Adam Kay )

With live performances cancelled around the world, Kay says people started to realise how much they valued the arts in their lives — at the same time as casual workers in creative industries were shut off from receiving government suppor t.

"I'm not pretending it's the same as saving a life on a labour ward. But what is life for when it's stripped of [the arts]?"

At the same time as people were watching live comedy in their lounge rooms, they were also gaining a greater appreciation for healthcare staff. In the UK, many people participated in Clap for Our Carers, where people would applaud essential workers from their doorsteps.

"COVID crystallised in everyone's mind quite how important those jobs are, and how reliant we are on these people. [Though] not enough for the government to pay them anymore," he says.

But while people may appreciate the essential work of medical professionals more, Kay points out that budgets are more stretched now than they were in 2010, and that many doctors — like him — have left the field.

"Things are a lot tougher on the wards [now]," he says.

But Kay does think the industry has improved in terms of staff wellbeing. In 2019, the government launched a dedicated 24-hour helpdesk for doctors working across the country.

"Medicine can no longer get away with totally ignoring the concept of the wellbeing of its staff. They're not doing it well enough. But at least there's like some effort being made," he says.

"It's probably a kinder place than when I was working there."

'Culturally a doctor'

It took Kay a long time before he was comfortable calling himself a "writer". Yet even though he has started to put "writer" as his occupation on forms, part of him still sees himself as who he was.

"I consider myself culturally a doctor," he says.

"A lot of my friends are doctors. I still miss working as a doctor. I've got a lot of guilt about leaving medicine. People still text me their rashes. But I'm not a doctor. The reason that I applied to medicine in the first place to help people hasn't gone away: I've still got that in me somewhere."

He loves to perform on stage, and describes his live shows as a mix of stand-up and storytelling. What he loves even more is sitting at a table after a show signing books and talking to people — something he'll be doing on his Australian tour.

Usually, audiences approach him and say things like "This book helped me through this patch", or "This book put my child off studying medicine."

But recently his audiences in the UK have started to tell him a new story.

"I've had people come up to me, saying, 'You're not going to remember this person, but you delivered them 17 years ago.' Which is quite wild," he says.

"But it's also quite a good business model, isn't it: delivering your own audience."

Adam Kay: This Is Going to Hurt is at Melbourne International Comedy Festival from April 16-21, before touring to Sydney Comedy Festival, Brisbane Comedy Festival and Perth Comedy Festival.

ADAM KAY ANNOUNCES AUSTRALIAN TOUR!

We are pleased to announce that BAFTA-winning UK comedian, Adam Kay, will be coming to Australia for his first ever tour in April!

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ADAM KAY (UK) – THIS IS GOING TO HURT

• Comedy - Stand Up

Adam Kay is a former doctor turned BAFTA-winning comedian and author of This is Going to Hurt , the bestselling nonfiction book of the century.

This hilarious live show about life on and off the hospital wards was a breakaway hit in the UK, seen by over 300,000 people, including 50 sell-out nights in the West End. He was the best-selling act of the 2023 Edinburgh Fringe. He’s sold over five million books. This is his first tour of Australia. Basically, don’t miss it.

“Hilarious and heartbreaking” – The Times

“Electrifying” – The Guardian

“Unflinching humour” – Independent

“Scalpel-sharp humour and searing insight” – The Sun

“Hilariously gruesome” – Sunday Times

“Hilarious, moving and caustic” – Scotsman

“Brutally funny” – New Statesman

“Painfully funny” – Stephen Fry

“Harrowing and hilarious” – Jo Brand

“Funny, excoriatingly revealing, beautiful” – Dawn French

“Bloody funny” – Minnie Driver

★★★★★ Mail on Sunday

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Adam Kay – This Is Going To Hurt

28 April 2024 Sunday

28 April 2024

Doors open: 5:15pm

Show time: 6:00pm - 7:15pm

Astor Theatre

EXTRA SHOW ADDED DUE TO HUGE DEMAND

Adam Kay is a former doctor turned BAFTA-winning comedian and author of This is Going to Hurt, the bestselling nonfiction book of the century.

This hilarious live show about life on and off the hospital wards was a breakaway hit in the UK, seen by over 300,000 people, including 50 sell-out nights in the West End. He was the best-selling act of the 2023 Edinburgh Fringe. He’s sold over five million books. This is his first tour of Australia. Basically, don’t miss it.

“Hilarious and heartbreaking” – The Times “Electrifying” – The Guardian “Unflinching humour” – Independent “Scalpel-sharp humour and searing insight” – The Sun “Hilariously gruesome” – Sunday Times “Hilarious, moving and caustic” – Scotsman “Brutally funny” – New Statesman “Painfully funny” – Stephen Fry “Harrowing and hilarious” – Jo Brand “Funny, excoriatingly revealing, beautiful” – Dawn French “Bloody funny” – Minnie Driver ★★★★★ Mail on Sunday

THEATRE MODE: Fully Reserved Seating Licensed All Ages – Patrons under 18 can only attend with a parent/guardian (over 18) with a valid ticket. Infants not admitted.

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ADAM KAY (UK) – THIS IS GOING TO HURT

• Comedy - Stand Up

Adam Kay is a former doctor turned BAFTA-winning comedian and author of This is Going to Hurt , the bestselling nonfiction book of the century.

This hilarious live show about life on and off the hospital wards was a breakaway hit in the UK, seen by over 300,000 people, including 50 sell-out nights in the West End. He was the best-selling act of the 2023 Edinburgh Fringe. He’s sold over five million books. This is his first tour of Australia. Basically, don’t miss it.

“Hilarious and heartbreaking” – The Times

“Electrifying” – The Guardian

“Unflinching humour” – Independent

“Scalpel-sharp humour and searing insight” – The Sun

“Hilariously gruesome” – Sunday Times

“Hilarious, moving and caustic” – Scotsman

“Brutally funny” – New Statesman

“Painfully funny” – Stephen Fry

“Harrowing and hilarious” – Jo Brand

“Funny, excoriatingly revealing, beautiful” – Dawn French

“Bloody funny” – Minnie Driver

★★★★★ Mail on Sunday

Want to receive the latest news about upcoming tours and access to exclusive pre-sales, special offers and tour updates? Join our email list at www.bohmpresents.com  

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Adam Kay – This Is Going To Hurt Live

Adam Kay is a former doctor turned BAFTA-winning comedian and author of This is Going to Hurt, the bestselling nonfiction book of the century.

This hilarious live show about life on and off the hospital wards was a breakaway hit in the UK, seen by over 300,000 people, including 50 sell-out nights in the West End. He was the best-selling act of the 2023 Edinburgh Fringe. He’s sold over five million books. This is his first tour of Australia. Basically, don’t miss it.

“Hilarious and heartbreaking” – The Times

“Electrifying” – The Guardian

“Unflinching humour” – Independent

“Scalpel-sharp humour and searing insight” – The Sun

“Hilariously gruesome” – Sunday Times

“Hilarious, moving and caustic” – Scotsman

“Brutally funny” – New Statesman

“Painfully funny” – Stephen Fry

“Harrowing and hilarious” – Jo Brand

“Funny, excoriatingly revealing, beautiful” – Dawn French

“Bloody funny” – Minnie Driver

★★★★★ Mail on Sunday

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An Evening with Stephen Fry

This is Going to Hurt

16 - 21 April 2024

Athenaeum Theatre 1

BOHM IN ASSOCIATION WITH GAG REFLEX PRESENT

This is Going ToHurt

Adam Kay is a former doctor turned BAFTA-winning comedian and author of This is Going to Hurt , the bestselling nonfiction book of the century.

This hilarious live show about life on and off the hospital wards was a breakaway hit in theUK, seen by over 300,000 people, including 50 sell-out nights in the West End. He was the best-selling act of the 2023 Edinburgh Fringe. He’s sold over five million books. This is his first tour of Australia. Basically, don’t miss it.

“Hilarious and heartbreaking” – The Times

“Electrifying” – The Guardian

“Unflinching humour” – Independent

“Scalpel-sharp humour and searing insight”– The Sun

“Hilariously gruesome” – Sunday Times

“Hilarious, moving and caustic” – Scotsman

“Brutally funny” – New Statesman

“Painfully funny” – Stephen Fry

“Harrowing and hilarious” – Jo Brand

“Funny, excoriatingly revealing, beautiful”– Dawn French

“Bloody funny” – Minnie Driver

★★★★★ Mail on Sunday

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Both the prequel and the sequel to This is Going to Hurt, about medical school and life after medicine.

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Adam Kay is a BAFTA-winning author, TV writer, comedian and former junior doctor. His first book, This is Going to Hurt , spent over a year at number one in the Sunday Times bestseller list, was translated into 37 languages, won ten national awards, and sold over three million copies. His subsequent adult nonfiction books, Twas the Nightshift Before Christmas and Undoctored were also Sunday Times number one bestsellers. He edited Dear NHS: 100 Stories to Say Thank You , raising over £400,000 for charity. He is also one of the country's bestselling children's authors, with books including Kay's Anatomy ( the fastest selling kids' non-fiction book of the decade), Kay's Marvellous Medicine , Kay's Brilliant Brains, Kay's Incredible Inventions and picture book Amy Gets Eaten . His books have sold over five million copies in total.

As a live performer, Adam has sold-out numerous West End seasons and UK tours. His tour of This is Going to Hurt was attended by over 300,000 people and Undoctored was the bestselling show of the 2023 Edinburgh Fringe.

Adam's awards for TV writing include BAFTA and Writers Guild awards for adapting This is Going to Hurt for the BBC and AMC. He is a columnist for the Sunday Times, and a proud patron of The Lullaby Trust ,   The Laura Hyde Foundation and Doctors in Distress , with whom he is the founder of the National Memorial Tree Planting Campaign for healthcare workers who have lost their lives by suicide.

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ADAM KAY – AUSTRALIAN TOUR 2024

AUSTRALIAN TOUR 2024

MELBOURNE ATHENAEUM THEATRE 16-21 APRIL

SYDNEY ENMORE THEATRE WEDNESDAY 24 APRIL

BRISBANE POWERHOUSE THURSDAY 25 APRIL

PERTH ASTOR THEATRE SUNDAY 28 APRIL

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Adam Kay is a former doctor turned BAFTA-winning comedian and author of This is Going to Hurt, the bestselling nonfiction book of the century sitting at Number 1 on the Sunday Times bestseller list for over a year.  This book has been translated into 37 languages, sold over 3 million copies and won ten national awards.  The book went onto being a multi Bafta Award winning television show starring Ben Whishaw.

Adam is bringing his This Is Going To Hurt Live  show to Australia in April 2024, starting in Melbourne before heading to Sydney, Brisbane and Perth.

Tickets are on sale now!

This hilarious live show about life on and off the hospital wards was a breakaway hit in the UK, seen by over 300,000 people, including 50 sell-out nights in the West End.  He was the best-selling act of the 2023 Edinburgh Fringe.  He has released 10 books and sold over five million books in total.

Adam is a proud patron of The Lullaby Trust, Doctors in Distress and The Laura Hyde Foundation.

This is his first tour of Australia.  Basically, don’t miss it.

“Hilarious and heartbreaking” – The Times

“Electrifying” – The Guardian

“Blissfully brilliant” – Mail on Sunday

“Blisteringly funny” – Sunday Express

“Scalpel-sharp humour and searing insight” – The Sun

“Hilarious, moving and caustic” – Scotsman

“Hilarious, horrifying and heartbreaking” – Express

“Painfully funny” – Stephen Fry

“Harrowing and hilarious” – Jo Brand

“Funny, excoriatingly revealing, beautiful” – Dawn French

“Bloody funny” – Minnie Driver

Heard the news? Check out who’s touring Australia!

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Bryan Adams announces Australian, New Zealand tour dates

• August 29, 2024

The So Happy It Hurts Tour features James Arthur

Bryan Adams will bring his So Happy It Hurts Tour to Australia and New Zealand in February 2025 via Frontier Touring. The arena tour begins with two shows in Christchurch and Auckland, followed by performances in Melbourne, Adelaide, Perth, Sydney and Brisbane.

Tickets go on sale Wednesday, September 4th via ​the Frontier Touring website. Frontier Members’ presale starts Monday, September 2nd.

From his first concerts in Australia in 1984, Adams is a long-time live favorite Down Under. No stranger to being on the road, he is one of the best-loved performers of the last four decades, achieving a string of No. 1 hits in over 40 countries.

With many an accolade, Adams is the recipient of numerous awards, including a Grammy for Best Rock Performance with 16 nominations, not to mention nominations for three Academy Awards and five Golden Globes, American Music Awards, and a Companion of the Order of Canada. He has duetted with icons Tina Turner, Sting, Rod Stewart, and Mel C.

Joining Adams as a guest on all shows – and his first time performing in Australia/New Zealand – is English singer and songwriter James Arthur. One of the world’s biggest streaming artists, Arthur has over 40 million monthly listeners on Spotify alone, and recently scored the No. 1 spot on the UK Album charts with the 2024 release Bitter Sweet Love .

Currently on tour in Europe, in August Bryan Adams launched Bad Records, his independent label, releasing a limited edition double A-side 7-inch, digital single and video of two songs “Rock And Roll Hell” and “War Machine.” These songs were originally written by Adams, Jim Vallance, and Gene Simmons for Kiss’ 1982 album Creatures of the Night . In 2023, Adams re-recorded some of his biggest songs with a double album Classics , he later released a three-album box set from his residency at The Royal Albert Hall. He released his 16th studio album, So Happy It Hurts , in 2022. Adams is also famous for venturing into the world of musical theatre, co-writing the songs for Pretty Woman: The Musical  in 2018.

Bryan Adams 2025 Australia/New Zealand Tour Dates:

Feb 1 – Christchurch, NZ @ Wolfbrook Arena Feb 4 – Auckland, NZ @ Spark Arena Feb 6 – Melbourne, VIC @ Rod Laver Arena Feb 7 – Adelaide, SA @ ​Adelaide Entertainment Centre Feb 9 – Perth, WA @ RAC Arena Feb 12 – Sydney, NSW @ Qudos Bank Arena Feb 13 – Brisbane, QLD @ Brisbane Entertainment Centre

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The tour marks Bryan Adams' first shows down under since March 2019.

Bryan Adams (Source: Supplied)

Everything he does, he does it for you… that’s right, Bryan Adams is heading to Australia and New Zealand in February 2025. The tour marks his first shows down under since March 2019.

Adams is beloved in Australia, with the Heaven hitmaker making his first-ever stops down under in 1984. With a string of #1 hits worldwide, Adams will be bringing the classics – Summer Of ’69, Run To You , (Everything I Do) I Do It for You; you can name so many – as well as tracks from his latest album, So Happy It Hurts , which he released in 2022.

Joining Adams on the forthcoming tour is James Arthur , the English singer known for the smash hit single, Say You Won’t Let Go . The tour marks Arthur’s debut performances in Australia and New Zealand.

The fun begins in New Zealand, with Adams set to perform at Wolfbrook Arena in Christchurch and Auckland’s Spark Arena on Saturday, 1, and Tuesday, 4 February, respectively. From there, the tour hits Melbourne’s Rod Laver Arena (Thursday, 6 February), Adelaide Entertainment Centre (Friday, 7 February), Perth’s RAC Arena (Sunday, 9 February), Sydney’s Qudos Bank Arena (Wednesday, 12 February), and Brisbane Entertainment Centre (Thursday, 13 February).

Expecting many fans to search for tickets quickly, Frontier Touring will release tickets to Bryan Adams’ tour at staggered times—for pre-sale and general sale tickets. Pre-sale tickets go on sale on Monday, 2 September, before the general sale begins on Wednesday, 4 September. You can find the timings and other ticketing details here .

In a review of Adams’ show at Rod Laver Arena in March 2019, The Music ’s Bryget Chrisfield wrote: “After Adams rocked our socks off, all in attendance were stoked to have made his acquaintance. He's lost none of that effortless rockstar lustre; Adams is the real deal.”

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BRYAN ADAMS + special guest James Arthur

February 2025.

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Saturday 1 February - Wolfbrook Arena, Christchurch, NZ

Tuesday 4 February - Spark Arena, Auckland, NZ

Thursday 6 February - Rod Laver Arena, Melbourne, VIC

Friday 7 February - Adelaide Entertainment Centre, Adelaide, SA

Sunday 9 February - RAC Arena, Perth, WA

Wednesday 12 February - Qudos Bank Arena, Sydney, NSW

Thursday 13 February - Brisbane Entertainment Centre, Brisbane, QLD

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Bryan Adams bringing latest blockbuster tour Down Under

For more than four decades, Bryan Adams has been entertaining audiences around the world with his hit music.

And Aussie fans are excited after the rock legend announced he will be bringing his So Happy It Hurts Tour Down Under in February, 2025.

Bryan will be performing all his greatest hits, including Run To You , Heave n, (Everything I Do) I Do It For You , Please Forgive Me and When You're Gone  among others.

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Today's Renee Bargh caught up with Bryan to find out what it is he loves so much about performing and what's the secret to his longevity and keeping his vocal chords in such great shape.

"I don't really do anything, it's what I don't do - I don't drink and I don't smoke, that's the key, it might have something to do with it," he said.

"I love swimming, it's one of the things I look forward to when I get to Australia and just keeping fit and keeping happy - they're sort of symbiotic with each other."

Bryan's long career has seen him collaborate with some huge names, including Barbara Streisand, Sting, Tina Turner, Rod Stewart and Melanie C.

And he revealed what other artists are on his wish list for performing a duet with.

"There's heaps of them, pulling names out of the hat now, I mean Bruno Mars, Sam Smith, it would just be great to work with some of them," he said.

"Oh and Miley Cyrus I love Miley."

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And with a list of hit songs that is way too long to list, by the time Bryan does arrive in Australia next year, another album will likely be on the charts.

"By the time the Australia dates rolls around, we'll probably be on the next album, so I'll keep you posted on that one," he said.

"(Aussie crowds) are real good, that's why we've been coming back since 1984, I don't even know what tour number this is - it's insane.

"I mean, I wish Australia was a little closer, I'd come way more often."

The So Happy It Hurts Tour kicks off in February 2025 and tickets go on sale Wednesday, September 4

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