Tenacious D
Photo: MTV

Though many artists and labels are taking a "wait and see" approach, Tenacious D, Blindside and Lisa Marie Presley have pulled out of European tour dates because of the war with Iraq.

Representatives for all three confirmed that the artists have postponed European appearances in light of the U.S. action in Iraq. Tenacious D were winding down a European tour and were slated to travel to Sweden for a few days when they decided to cut their trip short, a management source said.

In a note posted on their Web site, the D apologized to the producers of a Swedish television program on which they were slated to appear. The management source said the duo did not cancel out of security concerns, but rather because they felt that "doing their thing" was inappropriate during such a serious time.

Citing safety concerns, Elektra records called off a European tour by Swedish rockers Blindside. A spokesperson denied reports in the British press that the label had canceled international tours for all of its artists, insisting that decisions will be made "one band at a time."

Just a few days after her first public live performance, Lisa Marie Presley scrapped plans for a European tour, according to a source at her label. "Lisa Marie was supposed to have gone to Europe ... for a two-week promotional tour to launch the album in Europe," the source said of Presley's debut, To Whom It May Concern.

Sources at Columbia/Sony, Capitol and Universal said there are no plans to postpone European dates by any of their artists but that future decisions will be made based on the discretion of the artists and labels.

The Donnas, Avril Lavigne, Interpol, the Roots, Three Doors Down, Jurassic 5, Finch, Something Corporate, David Gray, Steve Earle, Jesse Malin and Evanescence are all currently touring Europe or about to begin tours and, at press time, their spokespeople said dates are expected to go on as planned.

Should the war with Iraq — and fears of terrorist attacks — continue for several months, it could seriously affect the traditional European summer festival season, according to Pollstar Editor in Chief Gary Bongiovanni. "Most heavy touring in Europe will occur in June through July, so I don't think artists have to make decisions today," he said. "I think everyone is waiting to see what happens before they cancel any dates. But if it continues, that could mean a lot of big acts canceling."

• Tenacious D
• Lisa Marie Presley
• Blindside

Blindside
Photo: James R. Minchin III

There's a line in Leviticus that reads, "Though shalt not place a stumbling block before the blind." P.O.D. know their Bible and believe strongly in this edict, which might explain why they've done everything in their power to turn Swedish hardcore band Blindside from an underground curiosity into multi-platinum rock stars.

Not only did Blindside play a Swedish ping-pong team in the P.O.D. video "Boom," the band's major label debut Silence is the first release on P.O.D.'s new label 3 Points and frontman Sonny Sandoval has plugged the sightless ones to anyone that's not deaf.

"Those guys are so great and they're so nice to us," Blindside guitarist Simon Grenehed said. "We've done two tours with them and every time we always have a good time. We've become really close and we hang out with their families."

Although P.O.D. only started kicking doors open for Blindside over the past year, they've been big fans of the band — Grenehed, vocalist Christian Lindskog, bassist Tomas Naslund and drummer Marcus Dahlström — for several years. Sandoval got hold of Blindside's self-titled debut in 1997 from the president of the band's Swedish label, and even made an effort to secure the group a deal in America way back then.

"He sent us a letter saying he wanted to release the record in the States, but we didn't know how to get hold of him," Grenehed said. "At the time we didn't know who P.O.D. were."

The next year, the two groups played a music festival together, and P.O.D. vowed to help the blind to see the spotlight. At the time, P.O.D. were still a year away from releasing their breakthrough record The Fundamental Elements of Southtown, but they took Blindside on tour, and started cementing the bond that would only strengthen with time. This fall, the two groups will embark on yet another road stint.

It's easy to see why P.O.D. are so enamored with Blindside. The band's latest album Silence is aggressive, crafty and filled with undeniable hooks. It's equal parts alt-metal, punk, emo and pop, and it simultaneously massages the brain's pleasure center and rips at its emotional core. Musically, the album seems influenced by early Deftones, Black Flag and Incubus, but Grenehed insists it was equally inspired by a complete lack of sound — hence its title.

"Lately we've been on tour a lot and you just get so fed up with music sometimes that we just lay everything aside when it came to listening to other bands," he said. "We wanted to find what we wanted to do ourselves and hopefully it's something more original than you hear every day."

Like P.O.D., Blindside are driven as much by the Rock of Ages as by the urge to rock. But as with their benefactors, their spirituality doesn't invade their transcendent songcraft.

"Our faith is really important to us," Grenehed explains. "It reflects our daily lives and when we play music and write lyrics it comes out through that. But we're not a preacher band or anything. Check out the lyrics. It's nothing strange."

As appreciative as Blindside are of P.O.D., and as much as they enjoy hanging with their hard rockin' brethren, they decided not to use Sandoval or his bandmates on any tracks on Silence. The last thing they want to do is bite the hand that feeds, but they're becoming a wee bit wary of being seen as tagalongs.

"I think it's a good thing to stand on our own legs a little bit," he said. "Times like this it's easy to be seen as P.O.D.'s little brother. I hope the music can speak for itself a little bit also."

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MTV.com Exclusive: Blindside Photos

• Blindside