Longtime RatDog guitarist Mark Karan will step away from the band due to health considerations this July. In a message on his webpage, Karan said the following: ‘My MDs have decided that a lump I’ve had on my neck for quite some time may in fact be a bigger problem than they originally thought. They can’t say it’s cancer but they can’t say it isn’t either (all tests are negative so far but they are still quite concerned). Meanwhile, I have several wonderful healers that believe they can help me a lot with focused attention and hard work… so that’s what I’ll be doing for the next month. If all goes well… all good. Otherwise it’s western style surgery and we’ll have to wait and see where the dust settles. So get on out to the shows. They’ll be different and I’m sure they’ll be fun. If at all possible I plan on joining the boyz for a rockin’ good time on the August run.’

RatDog is scheduled to appear at Milwaukee, WI’s Summerfest on July 5.