Country icon Willie Nelson has canceled several tour dates after suffering a ruptured blood vessel in his nose. "Per doctor's orders he needs to rest for a few days," according to a statement from his record label, Lost Highway. Nelson will skip a total of four planned performances in Lincoln, Neb.; Neosho, Mo.; Bonner Springs, Kan.; and Geneva, Minn.

Nelson was performing last Thursday (Sept. 5) at TJ's Tavern in Brownville, Neb., when he stopped the show for about 20 minutes to deal with a nosebleed, according to a post by his daughter Lana Nelson that appears on his official Web site. After it was under control, the band returned to the stage to finish the show.

On the bus after the show, the bleeding began again, and it was determined Nelson should visit the hospital in Lincoln, Neb., "where they stuffed an elephant's tampon up his left nostril," according to Lana's note. After about three hours travel on the bus, the bleeding started again, and Nelson visited another hospital near the Oklahoma/Texas border.

Back on the road again, Nelson's nose began "bleeding like an artery had been severed," Lana's account continues, but her father "refused yet another hospital ... We had held ice packs on it now for about 36 hours, and as mysteriously as it started, it stopped."

"Don't worry," she concludes, "I think things are going to be O.K."

Nelson is resting and expects to return to his tour Sept. 20 in Poughkeepsie, N.Y., and participate at the 15th annual Farm Aid concert the next day at the Post-Gazette Pavilion in Burgettstown, Pa. He has dates in support of his latest album, "The Great Divide," scheduled through a Nov. 16 finale in Ft. Worth, Texas.