Justin Vernon explains why Bon Iver may take a step back from touring

Justin Vernon is bringing back the Bon Iver name with the SABLE, the project’s first album in over five years, but that doesn’t mean he’s ready to be a rock star all over again. In a lengthy interview with The New Yorker, Vernon spoke about how the pandemic lockdown gave him the reset he needed to realize “I could stop doing all of this… I needed that—knowing I could stop.” While the genesis of his new three-song EP seems to have more to do with the understanding that he could end Bon Iver for good rather than any intention of actually doing it, the touring aspect still needs a little more time.

“I’ll share a pretty vulnerable moment,” he told the outlet when asked about his plans to get back on the road. He went on to explain that he was performing a show in Duluth at the beginning of his last tour and “was really suffering under the weight of everything.” During the song “[715] CRΣΣKS“—a real “crusher,” in his words, with no accompaniment—he “became overwhelmed with anxiety and sadness” and started to weep. “Like, hard. Shoulders-heaving crying,” he recalled. It made him feel incredibly vulnerable and unsafe, but the crowd apparently ate it up.

“I was thinking, They want this. Or this is making sense to them,” he shared. “If I could do that same touring setup and have somebody else sing the songs, that would be a little easier. But that whole night in, night out, let’s excavate Justin—I’m not built for it. When I say it like that, I think, How is anybody? But, that’s just me, I can’t.” In a note accompanying the new record, he addressed the same persistent anxiety, writing, “Being Bon Iver meant playing a part, and intentionally leaning into that role meant frequently pressing hard on a metaphorical bruise.” He needed—and still needs—time to heal.

This doesn’t mean touring is all bad, of course. He also relayed an anecdote about his show at New York’s Barclays Center with Yo La Tengo (which this writer was in attendance for) where he and the band were “throttling free jazz to an arena that is absolutely understanding what we’re doing. And, like, check mark. Check mark! Thank God.” But Vernon has always had a good understanding of the fact that nothing gold can stay. “It has to be something sacred—it has to renew,” he said of performing. “Things need rest. A life needs to rest at some point.”

SABLE, is out this Friday, October 18. You can listen to the first single, “S P E Y S I D E” below: