L7 bassist Jennifer Finch diagnosed with brain cancer, will miss the band's farewell tour

Jennifer Finch, the bassist for veteran Los Angeles rock band L7, has been diagnosed with an aggressive form of brain cancer and will not perform on the band's farewell tour this year. The group announced her diagnosis in an Instagram statement posted Monday, writing that "following multiple surgeries and serious complications, Jennifer now requires extensive medical care, rehabilitation and professional in-home support."

The farewell tour was booked, in the band's words, "planned along with Jennifer when all four of us were in good health and spirits," but Finch asked her bandmates to go ahead with the dates rather than cancel them. L7 said it would honor that request while treating her care as the immediate priority, and asked fans for the same support that has followed the band for decades.

L7 formed in Los Angeles in 1985, when guitarists and singers Suzi Gardner and Donita Sparks joined with drummer Dee Plakas and Finch on bass. Fiery singles like "Pretend We're Dead" and "Wargasm" helped kick off the riot grrl movement of the era before the band went on hiatus in 2001; L7 reunited in 2014 and has toured on and off since, building toward the farewell run that will now go on without one of its founding members.

That farewell tour, called The Last Hurrah, is scheduled to begin in San Diego on Oct. 6, and L7 said the dates will proceed as planned even without Finch on stage. The band also set up a GoFundMe to help pay for her care, writing that the support she now needs "has gone beyond what friends and family can safely provide around the clock."

L7 hasn't said whether anyone will fill in for Finch on bass during the tour, and the band's statement stopped short of any prognosis, saying only that it hopes to make her remaining time "as comfortable, meaningful, and full of love as possible."