Thirty-five years after the abrupt and still mighty disappointing end of his first band Hüsker Dü, Greg Norton was ready to go all-in again this time last year.
"I want to get back to music being a career, and not a side hustle," the veteran bassist said.
Just as he was about to hit the road with his new group UltraBomb last summer, though, Norton's plans again came to an unexpected halt.
The same month he was to begin a U.K. tour with his new bandmates, the 64-year-old rocker-turned-chef-turned-wine-specialist-turned-rocker-again instead had to begin treatment for prostate cancer at the Mayo Clinic. He had been diagnosed only a few weeks earlier.
Noting how "frustrated" he felt, Norton wrote in a post at the time, "I was really hoping to be sharing how excited I was to be coming back to play England for the first time in 35 years!"
Unlike with his first noisemaking trio, though, UltraBomb's hiatus was only temporary.
The band he formed via Facebook friendships with two other veteran punk rockers from two different countries will kick off its first-ever tour next Thursday at the Turf Club in St. Paul.
UltraBomb's 17-city U.S. tour then heads downriver to Winona for a Mid West Music Fest gig next Friday. It culminates at the Punk Rock Bowling festival in Las Vegas with other old-time punk acts such as Rancid, Fear, Fishbone and L7.