Travis Scott Opens Up About Astroworld Tragedy in Rare Interview

Travis Scott has opened up about the tragedy that occurred at his Astroworld Festival in November 2021 in a new interview. Ten people died in a crowd crush on the first night of the festival as an unwitting Scott performed on the stage above. The “Goosebumps” rapper told police at the time that he didn’t realize a situation had occurred until he was in his dressing room after the show, and reports of crowd injuries began to seep in.

The GQ Man of the Year was asked by the outlet how he had personally processed the tragedy exactly two years later. Scott admitted he had been “overly devastated” in the immediate aftermath, and still struggles today.

“That moment for families, for the city, you know, it was devastating,” Scott reflected. “I always think about it. Those fans were like my family. You know, I love my fans to the utmost.”

Scott continued: “It has its moments where it gets rough and…yeah. You just feel for those people. And their families.”

The artist’s latest album, Utopia, was in gestation at the time of the Astroworld tragedy. Ultimately, it was reshaped by the event, but it also helped Scott pull himself out of grief.

“When it came to making, like even finishing the album…I got back into it probably like, I don’t know, months and months and months after [Astroworld],” Scott said. “And the idea of just even getting back into music, working on music and just even getting into that, was therapeutic of being able to channel some of the energy into production and sounds and finishing it.”

One song on Utopia, “My Eyes,” explicitly refers to Astroworld and Scott’s struggle to move on from the incident. A verse near the end has Scott rapping: “I replay them nights, and right by my side, all I see is a sea of people that ride wit’ me / If they just knew what Scotty would do to jump off the stage and save him a child.”

“It just came out when I was writing,” Scott admitted. “Like I said, it was a real moment. The song is emotional to me. It’s one of my favorite songs on the album. And that verse means a lot to me.”

Scott was named one of GQ’s Men of the Year alongside the suddenly ubiquitous Jacob Elordi and reality TV-turned-shapewear maven Kim Kardashian.