Nick Valensi Taking ‘Temporary Break’ From The Strokes Tour

The Strokes are heading into one of the biggest moments of their career — a new album, a massive world tour, Bonnaroo and Outside Lands headline slots — and they’re doing it without one of their founding members, at least for now.

The band confirmed Thursday that guitarist Nick Valensi is stepping away from the Reality Awaits Tour, posting a message to their Instagram Stories that read: “Nick will be taking a temporary break from the scheduled tour, but we look forward to his return. Holding down the guitar in the meantime is our old friend Steve Schiltz, who many of you will remember from our early NY days. We’re lucky to have him.”

No reason was given. No timeline, either.

The announcement came the same night The Strokes appeared on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert — one of the show’s final broadcasts before it goes dark on May 21 — where Valensi was conspicuously missing from the stage. The band performed “Falling Out of Love,” the dreamy Auto-Tune-laced new single from Reality Awaits, in its live debut, complete with a laser light show. Julian Casablancas, doing what Julian Casablancas does, lurched sideways into Albert Hammond Jr. at one point. Business as usual, more or less.

This Isn’t the First Time Valensi Has Stepped Back This Year

What made Thursday’s announcement feel significant is that it’s the second time in 2026 Valensi has quietly disappeared from the lineup. He sat out several shows earlier in the year — including a pair of San Francisco dates in April — with Schiltz already covering guitar duties. Valensi did return for the band’s Coachella performances in April, which at the time seemed like a sign everything was fine. Apparently not entirely.

Valensi, now 45, is one of the band’s original members. He, Julian Casablancas, and drummer Fabrizio Moretti started the group that would become The Strokes back in 1997 as college students in New York. Bassist Nikolai Fraiture joined shortly after, with Albert Hammond Jr. completing the classic lineup in 1999. Together they helped define a generation of indie rock with “Last Nite,” “Hard to Explain,” “Reptilia,” and “Juicebox.”

Schiltz, who’s stepping in again, has deep roots in the same New York scene. He fronted Longwave, a band that formed around the same time as The Strokes and released four albums through the 2000s before breaking up — then reuniting in 2018 and dropping If We Ever Live Forever the following year. For anyone who was around for the early NYC indie days, seeing Schiltz back in this orbit will feel like a reunion of its own kind.

What’s Ahead for The Strokes

Reality Awaits — the band’s sixth studio album and their first since 2020’s acclaimed The New Abnormal — arrives June 26. It was recorded in Costa Rica with Rick Rubin before being finished in studios around the world. Lead single “Going Shopping” came first, followed by “Falling Out of Love.”

The tour itself is no small undertaking. It kicks off June 12 at Bonnaroo, then launches into a full North American run starting June 15 in Clarkston, Michigan. The itinerary includes two nights at Red Rocks, a headline show at London’s O2 Arena, Toronto’s RBC Amphitheatre, Paris’ Accor Arena, and Amsterdam’s Ziggo Dome, plus festival appearances at Just Like Heaven in Pasadena, Shaky Knees in Atlanta, Sea.Hear.Now in Asbury Park, and Outside Lands. A European leg follows in October, with Japan also on the schedule. Supporting acts across various dates include Thundercat, Cage the Elephant, Hamilton Leithauser, Fat White Family, Alex Cameron, and ÖLÜM.

Whether Valensi will be back for any of it — Bonnaroo, the arena shows, the festival runs — is still an open question. The band says they look forward to his return. For now, that’s all anyone knows.