 LOS ANGELES (Top 40 Charts) - Weezer bassist Mikey Welsh has checked himself into a psychiatric hospital, according to the band's official website. The news comes as the band is auditioning possible replacements for Welsh for upcoming live dates and after the bassist missed the band's video shoot for "Island In The Sun" on Wednesday (August 15) in Chatsworth, California.
"We have learned that Mikey has checked into a psychiatric hospital, we think in his hometown of Boston," reads a post on the band's website. "However, we unfortunately still don't know what's wrong with him, and continue to find it very difficult to find out any more from those who might know. We wish him the very best and we hope he comes back soon. But in the meantime, due to the circumstances at hand with the upcoming tours and such, we are indeed hastily scheduling tryouts for a replacement player for the upcoming gigs, JUST IN CASE Mikey isn't able to return." The band had expected Welsh to fly to Los Angeles to appear in a second video clip for its new single, "Island In The Sun," directed by Spike Jonze, who lensed the band's breakthrough clip for "Buddy Holly." However, Welsh did not show up to his late-night flight from the Boston-area to Los Angeles. "Everyone was hoping they could get some better idea of what was going on once we could actually see Mikey, and the video could be shot as planned. However, we got word that Mikey did not show up for his flight to L.A., which was in fact a 'red-eye,' the last possible flight that could have gotten him to the shoot in time," the site reported. Welsh joined Weezer after original bassist Matt Sharp left the band to concentrate on the Rentals. Welsh recently told us about his history prior to joining Weezer and how he joined the band. "I just grew up playing in bands in Boston, indie bands, making records, touring around, and that's what I've been doing since I was 18...I met [Weezer frontman] Rivers [Cuomo] when he was living there. He was going to Harvard, I think in '97, I met him after a show somewhere, and we just started hanging out and playing in his basement, we actually played some show there, in Boston, and just became friends. I think there was a six-month period where I was on tour with someone, and Rivers came back out to L.A and Matt left and I flew out and start playing with these losers and that was that."
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