The Strokes Guitarist Nick Valensi on ‘Temporary Break’ Ahead of Tour

The Strokes will embark on the Reality Awaits Tour without a founding member as the band announced that guitarist Nick Valensi is taking a “temporary break”from the summer trek.

The group appeared Thursday night on The Late Show With Stephen Colbert, and Valensi was noticeably missing from the performance of the Reality Awaits track “Falling Out of Love.” Soon after, the Strokes explained the guitarist’s absence on social media.

“Nick will be taking a temporary break from the scheduled tour, but we look forward to his return,” the band wrote, adding that “our old Steve Schiltz, who many of you will remember from the early NYC days,” would fill in for Valensi; Schiltz served as singer and guitarist in the similarly Y2K-era NYC band Longwave.

It’s unclear when Valensi will return to the tour, which kicks off in June following the band’s June 12 set at the Bonnaroo festival. In addition to their own tour dates, the Strokes have also festival gigs booked at Pasadena, California’s Just Like Heaven, Atlanta’s Shaky Knees, and Asbury Park, New Jersey’s Sea.Hear.Now. The group will then set off on a European tour in October.

When the band performed a pair of San Francisco shows in April ahead of their Coachella performances, Schiltz was on guitar in place of Valensi; however, Valensi was back on guitar for the Strokes’ Coachella gigs.

Reality Awaits, the Strokes’ first album since 2020’s The New Abnormal, arrives June 26.