Canadian music producer and DJ Deadmau5, whose legal name is Joel Thomas Zimmerman, was slated to perform at Coachella 2025 on April 18. However, he stumbled after appearing on the Quasar stage, reportedly due to alcohol related issues, and subsequently departed, leaving fans disappointed. Afterward, he took to social media to issue an apology and voice his opinions about Coachella.
Here’s why Deadmau5 apologized
The DJ appeared on the stage on April 18 as his alter ego Testpilot, accompanied by electronic music artist Zhu. The initial plan was for them to perform for several hours. However, witnesses reportedly saw Deadmau5 taking shots and heard his slurry speeches. After he fell over behind the DJ booth, the performance immediately stopped, and he was taken off the stage.
The following morning, Deadmau5 took to Instagram to share a photo of a water bottle and wrote in the caption, “I don’t remember a thing. But I don’t think I had a cig? So… that’s good I guess? Going back to bed. Wake me up around Thursday ish.”
He stated in the comment section of that post, “Probably my last Coachella show.” It’s unclear at the time of this article’s composition whether this will be the case.
In another post, the music producer claimed that even his cat was “disappointed” in him, before issuing the apology. “Sorry about last night. Lol. TO BE FAIR, I felt the first 3/4 was great,” Deadmau5 disclosed. He then proceeded to underscore Zhu’s performance on the day. “Huge shout out to @zhu for introducing me to whisky and carrying my dumb a– till the bitter end.”
Deadmau5 noted that he might need to do some self-reflection and hoped that he would return in a better state. He said, “Lemme quit smoking, do some f—– personal resetting here at home, find my spirit animal, work on some new music, and come back better.”
Originally reported by Tamal Kundu on ComingSoon.
