Over the weekend, A Tribe Called Quest pushed back and then cancelled their scheduled performance at San Francisco’s Outside Lands music festival. At first, the change was due to “unforeseen travel issues.” However, that explanation was then rescinded but not replaced.

Now, the group has come forward to both explain and apologize for their absence.

In a statement to The Los Angeles Times, the trio admitted that feelings of grief for their late member Phife Dawg left them immobilized. Phife died last year due to complications from diabetes. The group wrote:

“Upon the eve of playing for you, we performed not to a mixed crowd of festival patrons but to a filled house of solely Questers. It was humbling. The beautiful Red Rock amphitheater was filled with voices helping us get through a difficult performance without our brother Phife. You would think that with every performance we heal a little more and the sadness is easier to handle. Sometimes that is the case and sometimes the grief and loss is compounded. Although the house was filled with love and we felt it all, we also felt the huge void of Phife’s absence. We walked off that stage deep in grief.”

“In show business there is a notion that the ‘show must go on’ no matter what. Sometimes though, when you have lost someone close, you are riddled with the notion that there is no going on. That Friday morning upon traveling to San Francisco, a wave of grief was still on us and in that moment we could not see the ‘on’ to go on to. Eventually though in face of loss you find that glimmer of light to bring you to your center and you find the ‘on.’”

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