Minnesota guitar hero Brian Setzer will return to the road after hands injury

The Stray Cats will tour again in October.

The Minnesota Star Tribune
July 31, 2025 at 2:30PM
After a hand injury earlier this year, guitarist Brian Setzer will return to the road with Stray Cats in October. (Tom Sweeney/The Minnesota Star Tribune)

Brian Setzer is back.

The most celebrated guitarist living in Minnesota is returning to touring this fall after announcing a pause last winter because of an injury from cramps in his hands.

Setzer will return to the road with the band that made him famous in the early 1980s — the Stray Cats. The rockabilly revival trio has announced a 21-concert tour, kicking off Oct. 25 at a casino in Michigan.

There are no dates in Minnesota, where Setzer moved more than 20 years ago with his Hopkins-reared wife Julie Reiten.

There was no mention of Setzer’s injury in this week’s press release announcing the tour. Stray Cats last toured in the summer of 2024, which is noted in the press release.

The usually private Setzer, 66, made a rare post on X in February: “I cannot play guitar. There is no pain, but it feels like I am wearing a pair of gloves when I try to play.”

View post on X

He stated that it was an autoimmune disease without specifying the name, and he was going to the Mayo Clinic in Rochester for treatment. The condition started bothering him on the 2024 Stray Cats reunion tour.

After a March 19 post saying he was “getting better day by day,” Setzer returned to X on Monday, plugging the tour saying that he and the two other original members, Lee Rocker and Slim Jim Phantom, will take their signature rockabilly sound across the country in the fall. Presale starts at 10 a.m. Thursday and tickets go on sale at 10 a.m. Friday.

View post on X

The Grammy-winning Setzer is best known for singing the Stray Cats’ early MTV hits “Rock This Town” and “Stray Cat Strut.” He has released 13 solo albums and also led the Brian Setzer Orchestra, known for their holiday shows. In 2019, he ended his 15-year Yule run with the BSO.

He last performed in Minneapolis in December 2023 with Brian Setzer’s Rockabilly Riot, his other trio. His last Stray Cats gig in the area was on their 40th anniversary tour in 2019 at Treasure Island Casino in Welch, Minn. After that trek, Setzer took a hiatus from touring because he was suffering from tinnitus.

about the writer

about the writer

Jon Bream

Critic / Reporter

Jon Bream has been a music critic at the Star Tribune since 1975, making him the longest tenured pop critic at a U.S. daily newspaper. He has attended more than 8,000 concerts and written four books (on Prince, Led Zeppelin, Neil Diamond and Bob Dylan). Thus far, he has ignored readers’ suggestions that he take a music-appreciation class.

See Moreicon

More from Music

See More
card image
Marco Borggreve/Minnesota Orchestra

The Minnesota Orchestra concert also includes works by Caroline Shaw and Joseph Haydn.

card image