Beloved Swedish punk rockers Refused had to cancel their gig at Stockholm’s Rosendal Garden Party festival this weekend following singer Dennis Lyxzén revealed that he’d suffered a heart attack. The show, which was hyped as the band’s final festival gig in Sweden, was scotched following Lyxzén was hospitalized and told to rest by physicians.

“So this morning I had a massive heart attack at my hotel room. It’s was extremely painful and wildly scary,” the singer mentioned on Thursday (June 13) alongside a photo of him in the hospital hooked up to a raft of health-related devices. “Thanks the the wonderful doctors and nurses at the Uppsala hospital I’m still around to fight another day. Under the circumstances I feel ok. Sore and tired and really shook up.”

In addition to their festival swan song, the gig would also have been the Refused’s very first show in 4 years following the COVID-19 pandemic forced them to cancel their 2020 North American tour following a March 9 gig in Los Angeles.

“I real really hate cancelling show but the doctor said no rock for a couple of weeks,” Lyxzén continued. “Which means that the @refused show at @rosendalgardenparty is not happening.
A complete bummer as I was really looking forward to it. But hopefully I/we will be able to make up to you soon.” He mentioned the very good news was that with medication his physicians think he can be up and rocking once again “hopefully sooner than later.”

The band released a trio of blistering post-hardcore albums in the 1990s, such as their smash mouth 1994 debut, This Just Might Be… The Truth, followed by 1996’s equally blistering Songs to Fan the Flames of Discontent and the LP that is regarded as to be their inventive peak, 1998’s The Shape of Punk to Come, which added some jazzy and experimental components to the songs once again driven by Lyxzén’s primal howl vocals.

After breaking up following the tour for Shape — with Lyxzén going on to kind The (International) Noise Conspiracy — they reunited in 2012 for a tour and two additional albums, 2015’s Freedom and 2019’s War Music.

Lyxzén ended his message with a note of hope and gratitude, signing off, “Life is weird and precious. Take care of each and tell your loved ones that you love them.”

The post got lots of really like from Lyxzén’s punk brethren, such as Thursday singer Geoff Rickly, who wrote, “Take it easy. Rest up. We need people like you man” and Epitaph Records founder/Bad Religion guitarist Brett Gurewitz, who mentioned, “Sending you love and heartfelt wishes for a speedy recovery my friend” Epitaph released Freedom. The singer also got really like from the bands Snapcase, Sick of It All, Rancid’s Lars Frederiksen, Thursday and DJ Steve Aoki, amongst other people.

See Lyxzén’s post beneath.