DROWNING POOL's C.J. PIERCE Blames Logistical Issues And 'Red Tape' For Cancelation Of South American Tour

In a new interview with Hollie Nicole of Teaser Talk, DROWNING POOL guitarist C.J. Pierce and singer Ryan McCombs spoke about the cancelation of the band's South American tour, which was scheduled to kick off on May 20 in Bogota, Colombia. C.J. said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): "Well, we were gonna be doing South America. That just got put on hold yesterday. We were looking forward to going. Just the timing with it — I'm hoping that that comes back up towards the end of the year, 'cause that's supposed to be a week and a half from now, and all the logistics weren't put together for us to get there in time. There's a lot of red tape and stuff like that. And just we didn't meet the deadline for it. So I'm hoping to go back. I love South America. We really wanna play there. I wanna go so bad. But yeah, that's gonna be pushed off."

Ryan chimed in: "Yeah, we're definitely, definitely pushing towards making it happen. 'Cause when you've been allowed to do this this long, when people have kept you in the game this long, one side of that is it's very rare that you see something come up on your calendar that you haven't done before. And there was several countries there that we had never — I know I'd never been to before, so I was really looking forward to that. So we're definitely pushing towards that coming to fruition."

C.J. added: "We're trying to make it happen. Sorry, South America. We're trying to get there."

According to an official statement released by the DROWNING POOL South American tour organizers, the decision to scrap the trek "was made jointly by all local promoters involved due to low ticket sales recorded in all cities on the tour."

The statement added: "Customers who have already purchased tickets should request a refund directly from the company responsible for ticket sales in their respective city.

"For more information and specific guidance regarding the refund process, please contact the local promoter.

"Thank you for your understanding."

DROWNING POOL's seven-date South American tour was slated to run through a May 31 show in Curitiba, Brazil. Stops on the trek included Lima, Peru; Santiago, Chile; Buenos Aires, Argentina; Belo Horizonte, Brazil; and São Paulo, Brazil.

When the tour was first announced in early March, DROWNING POOL said in a statement: "We're super stoked to be playing in South America for the first time!"

DROWNING POOL issued three new singles over the course of the last year and a half — "The Wrong One", which was released in February 2026, "Madness", which came out in April 2025, and "Revolution (The Final Amen)", which arrived in September 2024. "Revolution (The Final Amen)" was the first piece of music Pierce, drummer Mike Luce and bassist Stevie Benton completed with McCombs in 13 years.

McCombs played his first shows back with DROWNING POOL in March 2023 at Club L.A. in Destin, Florida and at the inaugural Throwdown At The Campground festival in Fruitland Park, Florida.

The longtime SOIL frontman, who has lived in Swindon, England since 2018, originally joined DROWNING POOL in 2005 and appeared on two of the band's studio albums, "Full Circle" (2007) and "Drowning Pool" (2010),as well as a live album, 2009's "Loudest Common Denominator". He rejoined SOIL after exiting DROWNING POOL in 2011.

McCombs is continuing to front SOIL and will carry on recording and performing with both bands.

DROWNING POOL's debut album, "Sinner", was certified platinum within six weeks of its release in 2001, while the CD's first single, "Bodies", was one of the most frequently aired videos on MTV by a new band.

After the release of "Sinner", DROWNING POOL reached out to an ever-greater audience with dynamic performances at Wrestlemania XVIII and Ozzfest during the summers of 2001 and 2002. Unfortunately, their streak of success was not to last. Shortly after rousing the crowd at Ozzfest in Indianapolis, Indiana, on August 3, 2002, vocalist Dave "Stage" Williams was found dead of natural causes on the tour bus.

Photo courtesy of O'Donnell Media Group