just to show that the NIN tour isnt over yet by a long shot...remember back when robin's joining NIN was first announced and i said he'd be on the road with trent for a year to 18 months? here is words from Freese's mouth that the tour will conintue in a slimmed down format

Drummer Explains Departure From Nine Inch Nails
By: Don Kaye

Nine Inch Nails drummer Josh Freese has issued a statement regarding his departure from the band at the end of its current North American tour, concluding a three-year stint with the group. Freese wrote in part, "I know a few people are aware that I'm having my third child in January and basically... that about sums it up! I've just been gone too damn much lately and if I hadn't spent so much time on the road in recent years (between NIN, A Perfect Circle, Devo, Sting, the Vandals) coupled with having three kids (come January) then I'd still be out on the road in the new year. It's just that the rate that NIN has been touring (and will continue to tour in 2009) is something that I can't keep up with right now."

Freese added, "My kids need their Dad around and I want to be around for them. I am definitely not retiring or 'done touring'by any means though. I just need to be home a bit more next year." Freese said he had not received "a better offer" from another band and called his gig with Nine Inch Nails "one of my favorite situations I've ever been involved with."

Freese also wrote that he was "a big believer in Trent (Reznor, NIN frontman)," adding that he feels "fortunate and privileged to have had the chance to work alongside of him ... I have faith in the notion that we'll work together again at some point, in some fashion."

Former Lostprophets drummer Ilan Rubin has been tapped to replace Freese in Nine Inch Nails in 2009.

Freese has also been in demand for years as a studio drummer and has played on dozens of records by major artists. He told us a while back that it was hard for him to turn down offers to work: "The fact that I can go play drums and get paid for it, it's like, is awesome. It's really hard for me to say no about things like that. If I was super-rich, I would say no to a lot of these things, but I'm not, so that's how I kind of maintain making a living. I know a lot of great musicians that don't make a living playing music, and I kind of owe it to myself and them to work when someone calls me to work."

Reznor said in a recent post that the band's current tour, which features a large-scale, expensive stage production, will be the last of its kind from the group "for the foreseeable future."

www.htzfm.com