​Gord Downie, Tragically Hip Singer, Has Terminal Brain Cancer

Gord Downie, the voice of a generation of Canadian rock n' roll, has announced he has terminal brain cancer.

The Tragically Hip made a statement on their website early Tuesday morning, saying Downie. 52, received the diagnosis last December.

Despite the dire prognosis, the band says they are hitting the road for one final tour.

"This feels like the right thing to do now, for Gord, and for all of us," the Hip said in a statement. "We're going to dig deep, and try to make this our best tour yet."

The band's latest and 13th album, likely their last, Man Machine Poem, comes out in June. The first tune released off the album, "Tired as Fuck," is pretty good and, in retrospect, pretty sad.

The Hip have long-occupied the space of the definitive Only in Canada Band, being a guaranteed part of the soundtrack of bush parties and hockey arenas since their 1989 debut, Up to Here. Downie's evocative, if often inscrutable, lyrics, have drawn inspiration from Canadian stories in the way few popular acts have in this country, mythologizing dead hockey players like Bill Barilko, for example.

The Kingston, Ontario band formed in 1983 and has had eight albums hit number one in Canada. They were inarguably the most successful act to come out of 1990s alternative scene in Canada, although the Hip never quite managed to garner much of an international fan base. (This, of course, was a large addition to Canada's ever-growing mix of insecurity and pride in its place in the world.)

A staple of CanCon rock radio, it was the stage where the band really made their mark. Downie's sweaty, improvised dance moves and ad libbed poetry are pretty legend up here.

Downie has also produced three solo albums (listen to "Chancellor"), an album with The Sadies and wrote the one book of poetry that you're most likely to find on the bookshelves of Canadians under 50. He appeared in the 2008 film, One Week, as a pot-smoking, recovering cancer patient.

A news conference on Downie's condition will be held at a Toronto hospital later today. The singer is married with four kids.

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