Barenaked Ladies' Steven Page Taking Off For Jewish Holidays

Warner Music Australia, September 28th, 2000.

The Barenaked Ladies have built breaks into their tour schedule to allow singer Steven Page to observe the Jewish holidays. Page and the rest of the band will take off Friday, Saturday, and Sunday (September 29, 30, and October 1) for the Jewish New Year, Rosh Hashana, plus October 8 and 9 for Yom Kippur, the holiest day of the Jewish calendar.

Page told LAUNCH about the band's holiday breaks. "I'm Jewish, so I'm flying home for the High Holidays this year, and it's right in the middle of the tour," he said. "It's a bit of a deal, but I think we've all figured out in the band that if you've got something to do... 'If you need her, you should be there, go home,' as we say on the album — Maroon, available in stores now. But that's what we've had to realize. You miss a day here or there of essential touring time, it's not going to kill us. It's more important that we're in this band and glad to be there."

When asked if he regularly takes the holidays off, he added, "I didn't used to. I did as a kid, and even in college, and then in the band it sort of went by the wayside. I started feeling guilty about it, and then I was like, 'Why should I feel guilty about it? Why don't I just celebrate the holidays instead?'"

Tonight, Barenaked Ladies are in Cincinnati at the Firstar Center. Their new album, Maroon, has dropped from Number Five to Number 15 on the Billboard 200 album chart. The band has sold a respectable 200,000 copies in its first two weeks of release.