Justin Bieber’s Longtime Guitarist Dan Kanter Reveals He’s Not On The ‘Purpose Tour’

Justin Bieber’s Longtime Guitarist Dan Kanter Reveals He’s Not On The ‘Purpose Tour’//

Justin Bieber’s longtime guitarist and musical director, Dan Kanter, has announced he will not be in the lineup on the Purpose World Tour,//
 which kicks off on March 9 in Seattle, Washington. Kanter, a formally trained Canadian multi-instrumentalist, //
 has played alongside Bieber since the start of the then teen singer’s professional career in 2008. //
 Amid weeks of rumors about Kanter’s involvement on the Purpose World Tour, Dan shared a slew of tweets on Sunday confirming the news.//

“Thx to everyone for asking. It’s true I won’t be on this tour. JB, the team, & I will always be family & support each other. It’s all love,”//
 the father-of-one began. He added, “I’m so happy for JB’s deserved success, and proud of all the work we did in the last year//
 to promote Purpose and get this tour ready…” A new guitarist, Julian Michael, has replaced Kanter on the tour. About three weeks ago,//
 Michael posted an Instagram picture with Justin and expressed gratitude about his new position in his caption.//
 Some fans have since posted welcome messages for Michael.//

The Purpose Tour band’s new music director is bassist Brian Jamal Harvey. He announced his role on Sunday via Instagram.//

Kanter isn’t the only long-termer who won’t be touring with Bieber. Stage manager James Stassen let fans know he is not joining the 64-date trek//
 early Monday morning in three tweets. Looking back, a scroll through Scrappy’s Twitter reveals he stopped tweeting//
 and retweeting about Purpose rehearsals in the first week of February. Kanter shared his last specifically rehearsal-related tweet in the same week,//
 but he did tweet effusively about Justin’s Brits performance (on February 24), for which he accompanied by the singer-songwriter James Bay.//

Fast forward to March 1. “Scrappy” responded cryptically to a fan’s excited tweet about the upcoming Denver tour stop, replying, “not quite.” //
Stassen changed his Twitter bio the same day from an icon of the Biebs to a cartoon pic of a dog.//
 He also removed a description of himself as Bieber’s stage manager. On Saturday, March 2, multiple Bieber fan Instagram//
 and Twitter accounts shared posts on Scrappy and Kanter’s non-participation in the Purpose Tour before both men officially revealed the news.//

According to LinkedIn, Chris Gratton is the extensively experienced new production manager.//
 He had the same role on Ariana Grande’s Honeymoon Tour between 2014-15. Before that, he handled Kanye West’s Yeezus Tour //
 and did the same for The Smashing Pumpkins from 2006-2013. Other star names on Gratton’s resume include P Diddy, R Kelly, Guns N’ Roses,//
 Kelly Clarkson, Limp Bizkit, Linkin Park, Tracy Chapman, P.J. Harvey, and more. Once the word was out,//
 some Bieber fans took to Twitter and Instagram to post messages to Kanter and “Scrappy” over the weekend. //
 For fans who have followed the “Sorry” singer’s career since his “Baby” days, they are attached to team members.//
 Their messages range from hyper-emotional, to philosophically pragmatic, and bemused. //