Guided by Voices are “never going to play again” according to Bobby Bare Jr

Bobby Bare Jr, who’s been in GBV since 2016, revealed the news in a podcast interview with Lou Barlow.

May 20, 2025 - 05:35

Guided by Voices are “never going to play again” according to Bobby Bare Jr

Guided by Voices have been on an incredible hot streak since 2016 when the band came out of a two-year hibernation with a new lineup (Robert Pollard, Doug Gillard, Bobby Bare Jr, Kevin March, Mark Shue) that has released 19 albums in the last nine years, many of them fantastic. But GBV haven’t played live since October 2024, and according to a new interview with Bobby Bare Jr, the band are “never going to play again.”

The interview was for Sebadoh and Dinosaur Jr’s Lou Barlow and wife Adele Barlow‘s RAW Impressions podcast. It came up seemingly by accident with Adelle saying she’d never seen Guided by Voices live. “Well we’re breaking up,” Bobby replied. The interview, which Lou writes in the show notes was “loaded with technical difficulties,” is glitchy and it seemed like Adele didn’t hear what Bobby said and she reiterated that she’d never seen GBV play. “You never will,” Bobby said. “Oh it’s done?” Lou then says “You never will… they’re done.” Bobby then said, “We’re never going to play again.”

UPDATE: Some have commented that the “breaking up” comment was about technical problems and not the band, and both Lou Barlow and Adelle Barlow have written in saying basically the same thing. “My understanding is that they didn’t have plans to play more live shows,” says Adelle. “But I think they are still recording! Not broken up. And yea, I had a lot of technical difficulties during the podcast episode.” Lou says, “they are working on a new LP but, yea, no more live shows from what I understand.”

You can watch that at the 28-minute mark below.

UPDATE 2: Rolling Stone reports that Guided by Voices have another new album, Thick Rich and Delicious, on the way on Halloween, as well.

Guided by Voices calling it quits as a live band has been rumored since their October 26, 2024 show in Dallas, which was the last time they played live. A review of the show by the blog The Constant Bleeder said “The word around the jungle gym though is that Pollard, who turns 67 on October 31, will no longer tour,” adding, “Everyone I spoke to as we milled about before the noise started knew about it and had something to say and none of us were sure of what to think. Pollard’s family was there, I heard.”

Of course, Guided by Voices have called it quits before: they broke up in 2004 but reformed in 2010, stopped in 2014 and then reformed in 2016. So Bob, at 67, could change his mind or restart GBV with a new lineup. And if they’re still recording, it will be another busy year for Bob. Guided by Voices’ most recent album, Universe Room, was released in February, and new Pollard side project Rip Van Winkle will release their debut album in July.

So stay tuned. We hope it’s not the end!

You can watch the full October 26 GBV in Dallas show below.

H/T Bradley’s Almanac for this news.