After weeks of silence in the aftermath of the Astroworld tragedy, Travis Scott has given his first interview regarding the events that transpired. Scott sat down for a conversation with Charlemagne Tha God on his YouTube channel.
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“I’ve been on different types of emotions, an emotional rollercoaster,” Scott told Charlemagne at the beginning of the interview. “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.”
Scott said that he “didn’t know” that Astroworld had been deemed a “mass casualty event” until after the first police press conference. “And even at that moment, you’re like, ‘Wait, what?’”
Charlemagne asked Scott if there was any hesitation in him joining the 51-minute conversation since there have been nearly 300 lawsuits that have been filed against Scott and Astroworld’s promoter Live Nation. Scott said that he is a human being, and has the emotions he wants to share and communicate with his fans on the tragedy.
The host mentioned that attendees “collectively heard full scream and help every time [Scott] stopped a song” to grab Scott’s attention on stage as people were being trampled and killed in the crowd. Scott said he didn’t hear the screams, and that he did stop songs when he did notice some commotion in the fans.
Scott’s notoriously known as a “raging” performer, and Charlamagne pressed on Scott if his behavior possibly incited the tragic events. “That’s something I’ve been working on for a while, is creating these experiences and trying to show these experiences are happening in a safe environment,” Scott said in response. “Us as artists, we trust professionals for when things happen that people can leave safely. And this night was just like a regular show, it felt like to me, as far as the energy. It didn’t feel like, you know… people didn’t show up there just to be harmful. People just showed up to have a good time and then something unfortunate happened and I think we really just got to figure out what that was.”
Ultimately, Scott pushed back on the notion he is responsible for the tragedy. “The media wants to put on me, but at the end of the day… it’s more so about stepping out to figure out what the problem is.”
“I have a responsibility to figure out what happened here. I have a responsibility to figure out the solution,” Scott said. “Hopefully this takes a first step for us as artists, having more insight about what’s going on.”
