The Strokes’ Nick Valensi Taking ‘Temporary Break’

The Strokes have announced that guitarist Nick Valensi is taking a “temporary break” from the band’s “scheduled tour,” the first public recognition of his absence from recent live performances as well as laser-enhanced appearance earlier this week on CBS‘ The Late Show With Stephen Colbert. No further reason was given.

Valensi is being replaced by ex-Longwave leader Steve Schlitz, whose band was on the rise in New York around the time of the Strokes’ Is This It-era explosion. “Many of you will remember [him[ from the early N.Y. days,” the Strokes wrote on Instagram Stories. “We’re lucky to have him. See you out there.”

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For whatever it’s worth, singer Julian Casablancas implied he and Valensi no longer speak to each other in a November 2025 interview for the Lonely Island and Seth Meyers podcast.

As previously reported, the Strokes’ first album in six years, Reality Awaits, will be released on Cult Records/RCA and was produced by Rick Rubin. Both first single “Going Shopping” and new track “Falling Out of Love” find Casablancas going heavy on AutoTune; see the Colbert performance of the latter below. Reality Awaits is the follow-up to 2020’s The New Abnormal, which debuted at No. 4 on the Billboard 200.

The Strokes performed only six times combined in 2024 and 2025 but will visit such festivals Outside Lands, Bonnaroo, Shaky Knees, Sea.Hear.Now and Tokyo’s Summer Sonic through late September.

To see our running list of the top 100 greatest rock stars of all time, click here.