Morbid Angel halt Florida show as guitarist Trey Azagthoth struggles to stay on his feet

(Image credit: Morbid Angel)

Morbid Angel stopped a hometown show in Florida after a handful of songs when founding guitarist Trey Azagthoth appeared to fall ill and become unsteady on his feet.

The death metal pioneers were performing at the The Orpheum in Tampa on Friday (April 21) when Azagthoth needed help from roadies to stay standing. They removed his guitar and helped him off stage while the other three band members tried to play on.

Vocalist and bass player Steve Tucker told the audience the guitarist had injured himself, and they played one more song without Azagthoth before leaving the stage.

Tucker said: "I think we're gonna call it a night. Without the leader, I apologize. I love all you motherfuckers. Thank you for coming. Hopefully Trey is all right. We'll see you all again real soon. You have a good fucking night."

At the time of writing, the band have made no further comment on Azagthoth's condition.

They were due to wrap up their current tour at the Culture Room in Fort Lauderdale, Florida tonight (Saturday, April 22). But as of 7.30pm, neither the band nor the venue have confirmed if the show is going ahead.

However, one of the support acts – Revocation – posted on Instagram this morning, suggesting the gig was expected to happen as planned.

And later, Azagthoth's mother posted on her Facebook page saying the incident was down to her son being dehydrated and having previously hurt his back. She also insisted tonight's show would proceed, according to Blabbermouth.

Fans have been speculating as to what caused Azagthoth's withdrawal from the stage, and others have been posting on social media, trying to sell their tickets for tonight's show.

It caps a difficult 2023 for the band, who were getting ready for a show in Illinois last month when a tornado devastated the venue and caused the roof to collapse.

Fan Frederick Forest Livingston, Jr was killed in the tragedy, and the band later asked people to support a GoFundMe page launched to raise money for his family.

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Stef wrote close to 5,000 stories during his time as assistant online news editor and later as online news editor between 2014-2016. An accomplished reporter and journalist, Stef has written extensively for a number of UK newspapers and also played bass with UK rock favourites Logan. His favourite bands are Pixies and Clap Your Hands Say Yeah. Stef left the world of rock'n'roll news behind when he moved to his beloved Canada in 2016, but he started on his next 5000 stories in 2022.