Criminal Record Forces The Used to Cancel Canadien Tour Leg
The Used were forced to cancel all of the Canadian dates on their current North American tour earlier this month, and it turns out the reason is because frontman Bert McCracken was denied entry into the country due to his criminal record.
“They won’t let me in,” McCracken told Rolling Stone recently on a California stopp of the Warped Tour, which the band currently is touring with. “They said not for ten years. It’s weird, they’re like, ‘You need to rehabilitate these crimes before you come back to Canada.’ I’m like, ‘What does that mean?’”
McCracken then expanded on what kept him out of the country. “When I say criminal record, I’m talking teensy, eensy misdemeanors they still have on my record from, like, 2001 and 2003 – trespassing,” he said. Bandmate Jeph Howard said that it wasn’t just McCracken’s fault.
“We’ve been denied many times,” Howard said. “Half of our crew couldn’t get in either.”
McCracken said they have enjoyed the country whenever they have toured… once they actually gotten across the border, that is.
“It’s nice once we get up there, but trying to get in is a nightmare every time,” McCracken said. “We’ve been strip-searched. They made us spread our butt cheeks.”
The band is on the road supporting Vulnerable, their fifth studio album that was released back in March. After completing the Warped Tour, the group will head to South America and then Europe.
The band also told Rolling Stone that they have just finished a video for their current single, “Put Me Out,” and that fans can expect a little something different.
“All our videos are pretty serious up to this point, so we though we’d do something that’s kind of silly and fun,” McCracken said. “The whole concept of the video is this kid is in a cigarette costume, and he’s being treated like shit everywhere he goes. People give him dirty looks, he tries to take a cab and there’s a big “No Smoking” sign – then he sees a flier for the Used concert, comes to the Used show, moshes around, crowd surfs, I bring him up onstage, put a guitar on him and he starts rocking out with the Used.”