Chris Wollard Taking Break From Hot Water Music

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Chris Wollard has announced he’s taking a break from Hot Water Music for a little while to focus on his own health. The full statement can be found below.

Hey there everyone,
I think it’s time for me to take a few minutes to say a couple things.
First and foremost, I want to apologize to the people who came out for The Fest last weekend.
For those that don’t know, I was unable to play, and I asked the band to power through without me. It was the first time in my life that I had to bow out of a show, and it wasn’t an easy decision to make, but at the end of the day I had to put my health above the show. I wasn’t in a condition that I thought I could play, and I thought it would be even worse for the band to cancel the show, so I asked them to play without me. And I’m stoked that they did.

The reason for all this is that the last month or so have been pretty rough. When we came back home from Riot Fest, I was completely exhausted. Through the next few days I just kept feeling worse, until finally I thought I was having a heart attack and I ended up in the emergency room for 11 hours as they did all sorts of tests on me. It was terrible.

But! The good news is that I DID NOT have a heart attack, and in fact, they say my heart looks great…
The bad news though, is that my old friends Stress and Anxiety are back with a vengeance, and my body just isn’t handling it like it used to, and everything just kinda shut down on me.

So now I’m rebuilding. Working with my doctors. Doing what I can to get my legs back underneath me.
They told me it’s going to take some time to get back to normal, and warned me not to push too hard for that to happen quickly, but I found that very hard to accept. I decided to try to just tough it out and play the show. Unfortunately, the more I worked at it, and the closer we came to the weekend, I realized I was actually regressing instead of improving. I was just steadily walking backwards to the point where my problems had started.

This was when I asked the band to please keep moving forward and play without me. Because what I really need right now is to take the time for my body and mind to work their way back naturally. Unfortunately, I just can’t force it. If I try to speed it up, it really just slows it down and makes it harder. I am confident that I am on the right track, and I don’t feel defeated. I know that this is a mountain that I CAN climb. It is just super frustrating when you don’t bounce back from things like you used to. And sometimes it’s hard to admit when you are hurting, to accept your limitations, to need help and ask for it…But that’s where I am now. I’m rebuilding, and it’s gonna take a little time.

I have asked the band to power through without me–with someone to step in and fill my spot for a while–so that I can take care of this the right way. We all spent a lot of time and energy putting the new record together and booking shows that everyone has been very excited about, and I refuse to ask for everything to stop while I tend to myself. I need the band to keep being a positive force, and I need to train to keep rolling. I will jump back on it when I can.

Chris Cresswell and Chris DeMakes are both great musicians and great friends of ours. I couldn’t think of two better gentlemen to keep my seat warm. You’re in good hands with them until I can get back at it.
Hot water music still remains, and the guys are going to kick some ass.

Much love,
Chris Wollard
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