By NEKESA MUMBI MOODY (AP) – 32 minutes ago

NEW YORK — Kanye West and Lady Gaga's highly anticipated tour is over before it even began.

Just days after announcing dates for an ambitious joint show that was to kick off next month, the tour was canceled.

Live Nation announced the news in a brief statement Thursday that did not offer any explanation. Refunds are available for those who brought tickets for the tour. It was to kick off Nov. 10 in Phoenix and was scheduled to run through at least January.

The name of the tour was to be "Fame Kills" — a sentiment West may have been feeling in recent weeks. The Grammy-winning rapper has endured a firestorm of negative publicity since he hijacked the award-winning moment of country-pop sweetheart Taylor Swift at last month's MTV Video Music Awards.

Swift had made history as the first country act to win at the VMAs, and was giving her acceptance speech after nabbing a trophy for best female video. West — who has a long history of awards-show meltdowns — grabbed the microphone and declared that Beyonce's "Single Ladies (Put a Ring on It)" was one of the "best videos of all time."

A crushed Swift did not finish her speech then but did later when Beyonce brought her back on stage after winning video of the year.

West endured boos from the celebrity crowd that night, and the negative reaction kept growing — even President Barack Obama was caught calling him a "jackass" during remarks to reporters that the White House believed were off-the-record.

An almost tearful West gave one of three apologies for his behavior during the premiere of "The Jay Leno Show" last month. He said that hadn't fully taken time to grieve for his mother, who died suddenly in November 2007, and hinted that a break would be coming.

"So many celebrities, they never take the time off," he said. "I've never taken the time off to really — you know, just music after music and tour after tour. I'm just ashamed that my hurt caused someone else's hurt. My dream of what awards shows are supposed to be, 'cause, and I don't try to justify it because I was just in the wrong. That's period. But I need to, after this, take some time off and just analyze how I'm going to make it through the rest of this life, how I'm going to improve."

But shortly after that, the "Fame Kills" tour — which had been in the works for months — was announced.

Publicists for both West and Lady Gaga did not immediately return requests for comment. A representative for Live Nation said there was no further information

Live Nation sucks.

She must've told the "fish sticks" joke...

I'm sure it's best. There would be nothing but a bunch of protesters at the show against Kanye.

daPrettyman said:

I can't imagine that happening. But it may have affected ticket sales. Either way, to just cancel an entire tour after tickets had started to go on sale with no explanation is just piss-poor public relations on Live Nation's part. Wack!

Live Nation's paid out some pretty hefty deals to stars. What's their financial picture?

Wth I just saw something with lady gaga talking about the tour .. oh well

I heard she cancelled it cuz of his bad press.

SCNDLS said:

That sounds likely. It's sucks because my friend sat outside for 3 days to get tickets to the show at the Staples Center. What a waste.

SCNDLS said:

I can believe it.

ViintageJunkiie said:

Dang.

Maybe now he'll learn that there are repercussions to his ignant behavior.

SCNDLS said:

He better...

Timmy84 said:

GaGa needs to do her own tour anyway.

ViintageJunkiie said:

I agree. She's bigger than West at this point.

Timmy84 said:

Most def! I'd love to see a GaGa concert DVD

This sucks. I was gonna take my sister to see the show. I'd doubt they cancelled it because of kanye's bitch fit. Even with the backlash, from what I heard, the shit was selling.
[Edited 10/1/09 18:57pm]

Layzie said:

Kanye would've left the tour anyways so why let it go on?

The rumor is that he wanted to go to rehab after the tour but I guess things change... I hope he gets better.

Timmy84 said:

Seeing GaGa's attitude I could totally see her being pissed at him for his stunt and refusing to deal with him. Besides we don't know if there was stuff brewing behind the scenes and maybe his last two escapades were the last straw.

Hopefully, he will take a hint and chill his ass out Haters are not going to agree but, the man does have some nice songs and his cds. It's just to bad that all this nonsense has overshadowed what career he had.

So was this Live Nations decision?

midiscover said:

The point was they didn't give a reason

Yo Kanye! I'm really happy for u & i'mma let u finish, but Michael Jackson had the greatest cancelled tour of all time! OF ALL TIME!
[Edited 10/1/09 21:04pm]

ViintageJunkiie said:

ViintageJunkiie said:

LMFAO!!

Janet's Fuckwitu tour comes in second.

SCNDLS said:

LMAO! I love that pic!

midiscover said:

She went on tour? Ch!!! That tour happened so damn fast! It came and went like a damn mini concert on Good Morning America

ViintageJunkiie said:

ViintageJunkiie said:

ToraTora17 said: