Forrest's full statement:

Dear Everyone,

Over the past few months, serious health issues have resulted in my hospitalization on three occasions. Unfortunately these health issues are so serious that I must bow out of the March 15th show at the Varsity Theater.

Furthermore, professionally I would not want Somerset's audience to experience anything but a top-notch performance, which at this time, i can not achieve.

This has been a near-impossible decision I've had to make. I spent many of the best times of my life with Somerset, and am sorry that it has come to an end. I hope there is a time in the future when I'll be able to honor this ending with a show; but for my sake, and for the sake of the people I love who help care for me, I cannot now.

It is still uncertin if the show will be canceled. The other acts, who cannot be missed, still may play; but we will let you know as it develops.

This is an end, but with it comes new beginnings. JT has a new project *The Teddy Holidays* and also, I have formed a new band *Anchorage*. In addition, I'm very excited to see the artistic roads Matt and Claudio will travel down in our future.

Thank you, every last one of you who has given us a place to stay, a show to play, or a friendship we'll never forget. I love you so much, it's incredible.

With Sincerity and Adoration,

J Forrest Olsen

The other three members full statement:

We just wanted to offer a more complete picture of the situation regarding the cancellation of what was to be our final show at the Varsity Theatre.

In case anyone is wondering, the show is 100% cancelled. It was initially unclear whether or not the other bands would still perform without us, but that has officially been cleared up.

We want to thank everyone so much for the enthusiasm we received in the build-up to the show. It kills us to have to disappoint everyone like this, especially those who went to great lengths and spent a lot of money on flights to be able to be there.

At the risk of sounding spiteful, we do think it’s fair to clarify that canceling the show was not a unanimous agreement. It was Forrest’s decision alone (for reasons that he outlined in the bulletin preceding this one). He didn’t present us with any explanation beyond that which he ultimately posted on his myspace page, and later on ours. We gave our best effort to change his mind, but we were unsuccessful. Since it wouldn’t really be our final show without Forrest, we were forced to concede.

In the past, there have been times where we have gone months without even practicing. These long periods had always ended with a rehearsal or show that reignited our passion for this group. Forrest, more than anyone (in our opinion), seemed the most positively impacted. We’d hoped that this show could provide a similar type of catharsis and be a great final chapter to the Somerset story. Sadly, it wont be happening anytime soon.

Hopefully, such an event can still take place a little further down the road. But at the moment, logistically speaking, it seems fairly unlikely. Besides the unlikelihood of getting the same great bill together, Claudio is rarely in town these days, and he’ll probably be moving to Austin this summer.

While we can’t pretend to fully understand Forrest’s decision, we do understand that this is not a decision he would have made for trivial reasons (at least we’d hope so), and we wish him the best with his recent health problems.

Again, our sincere thanks to everyone who has supported us in any way over the last five years, and our sincere apologies to the venue and anyone else who was inconvenienced or otherwise let down by this unfortunate series of events.