Harley Flanagan has nine shows left on the books after the current Cro-Mags run, and he says that is roughly where the touring stops.
The 59-year-old bassist and vocalist posted the announcement to Instagram on Wednesday morning (August 5), over a photograph of a concert crowd carrying the line: “I can feel it in my bones, my touring days are coming to an end.”
He wrote: “I don’t know how many more I got in me… But it’s winding down….i’ve been on the road since the 70s. Even Stigma can’t say that lol.”
“This used to be an escape from living in squats. I don’t live in a squat anymore. I still enjoy playing music. I just don’t enjoy traveling. I have nine more shows booked after this tour. I’m gonna take a break for a little while and think this through, my new album is almost done I have a few more songs to finish and it may be the best one I’ve ever written that’s all I want is to write one good album that really makes me happy.”
“Then we will see what happens….”
“i’m not saying I’m gonna stop playing altogether. But I’m done grinding it out on tour. I’ll play when I feel like it, but this s**t is done, touring is a young man’s/woman’s sport. I like to eat right, I like to sleep right and I like to wake up next to my wife. I actually love my life. I’m not trying to escape it anymore.”
“When you find happiness hold onto it.”
“I don’t wanna spend my whole life on the road and die without holding onto the life I have created for myself.”
The aside about Vinnie Stigma is a nod to the Agnostic Front guitarist, one of the few figures in New York hardcore with a comparable run. Flanagan started playing in bands at 11 and was touring before most of the scene he helped build existed.
In a separate video posted the same day, Flanagan said he is dealing with several pinched nerves in his neck and lower back, and that performing is currently painful.
He intends to finish the European and UK dates, then see a surgeon and a neurologist.
The record Flanagan describes as possibly his best is being made with producer Arthur Rizk, who worked on 2020’s In The Beginning and whose credits include Kreator, Municipal Waste, Code Orange, Power Trip and Soulfly. Sepultura drummer Greyson Nekrutman has been involved in the sessions.
Flanagan has said Rizk pushes him outside his usual territory, and that he has been working with more melodic singing alongside his customary delivery.
The first result surfaced in June with “Wired For Chaos“, the band’s first new song in six years, released with a video directed by Rex Miller.
“It comes in with an aggressive metal intro befitting a UFC walk-in or a video game, then bursts into a more traditional HC thrash vibe before returning to a heavy beatdown at the end in an unmistakable Cro-Mags style,” Flanagan said of the track.
He also spoke about the crowd captured in the video, filmed across recent tours: “I am proud to say that we are one of those few bands that have a multigenerational audience and bridge the gap between hard-core kids, metalheads, punks, skinheads, and more, as seen in the audience of this video, which was filmed at our shows on the past few tours. Not many bands have such a blended fan base besides Motörhead, and I am proud to say that we are following in that tradition.”
The song shares its title with “Harley Flanagan: Wired For Chaos“, the documentary about his life that premiered in the United States last year.
Cro-Mags formed in New York in 1981 and released The Age Of Quarrel in 1986, a record that shaped the sound of hardcore for decades after it.
The band broke up following 1993’s Near Death Experience, reformed later that decade, and issued Revenge in 2000 before splitting again in 2002. Years of legal disputes with John Joseph over use of the name ended in 2019, with Flanagan retaining full ownership.
In The Beginning followed on June 19, 2020, the band’s sixth studio album and first in twenty years.
In September 2025, drummer Pete Hines rejoined after more than thirty years away. He had played on 1989’s Best Wishes.
No title or release date has been announced for the new album.
