A month removed from the “mass casualty incident” of Astroworld Festival, Travis Scott has finally emerged from the shadows to speak on the situation.
Sitting down with Charlamagne Tha God in a new exclusive interview Thursday (Dec. 9), Travis discussed the tragedy openly with The Breakfast Club personality for nearly an hour straight — discussing details of the disaster that ensued on Nov. 6 at NRG Park in his native Houston.
Astroworld Festival canceled after ‘mass casualty incident’
Following billions of dollars in lawsuits and calls for Scott’s head on social media, the multi-platinum-selling artist explained to CThaGod that it’s been “an emotional roller coaster” since the incident, saying it wasn’t until Houston PD’s initial press conference that he knew of the multiple deaths that occurred.
“It wasn’t really until… minutes into the press conference that I figured out exactly what happened. I’ve been on different types of emotions, an emotional rollercoaster. It gets so hard because I always feel connected to my fans, and I went through something and my fans went through something and people’s parents went through something and it really hurts. It really hurts the community, it hurts the city. It’s just been a lot of thoughts, a lot of feelings, a lot of grieving, and just trying to wrap my head around it.”
Travis Scott to CThaGod
Amid the tragedy, Scott had planned to roll out his upcoming studio album Utopia following the festival — releasing a two-pack of tracks the weekend Astroworld took place. When asked about the environment of his shows, Scott shook off questions about its “raging element” fueling the fire at the festival, saying “as artists, we trust professionals to make sure that people leave safely.”
Travis Scott releases two-pack ‘ESCAPE PLAN / MAFIA’ ahead of Utopia.
Scott also divulged his thoughts following the fallout of the festival, saying to fans that “I’m always here. I’m in this with you guys and I love you. I’ll always be there to help you guys through this.”
“I’ve just been in a room for awhile—a lot of thoughts,” he continued. “I’ve been doing this for such a long time and nothing like this [has] ever happened. At the end of the day, fans are your family, so you feel like you’ve lost something,”
However, perhaps the most important thing to take away from the interview is that Travis is not only outwardly remorseful about the situation, but is candid in his comments — maintaining an honest and forward-looking perspective throughout. Truth be told, as an artist, there’s only so much he could’ve done in that situation, as the hip-hop icon seems to feel truly horrible about what transpired, taking the time to explain what he saw on stage.
“The thing is, people pass out. Things happen at concerts, but something like that… You have a venue filled with 50,000 people. But it’s like a sea, you have lights, you have sound, you got pyros, you got your in-ears, you got sound, you got your mics, got the music, [you] got bands. All types of stuff going on.”
“You can only help what you can see and then whatever you’re told. Whenever somebody tells you to stop, you just stop.”
“You wanna make sure the fans get the proper attention they need. And anytime I could see something like that, I did. I stopped a couple times just to make sure everybody was OK.”
Travis Scott to CThaGod
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All in all, Travis takes responsibility for the incident and looks forward to righting these wrongs and assuring a situation like this “never happens again.”
“Fans come to the show and have a good experience. And I have a responsibility to figure out what happened here. I have a responsibility to figure out a solution and hopefully this takes a first step into us as artists having that insight of what’s going on. And the professionals to kind of surround and figure out more intel — whether it’s tech, whether it’s more of a response, whatever the problem is, to figure out that. [And] in the future, move forward in concert safety and make sure it never happens again.”
Watch Travis Scott and Charlamagne’s full interview below!
