Travis Scott Will Not Face Criminal Charges Over Astroworld Tragedy
Travis Scott is opening up about the tragedy at his 2021 show.
Two years after a crowd surge at the rapper’s Astroworld festival in Houston led to the deaths of 10 concertgoers, the “Sicko Mode” artist recalled the ways the incident has changed him.
“I always think about it,” Travis told GQ in an interview published Nov. 15. ‘Those fans were like my family. You know, I love my fans to the utmost. I was just overly devastated.”
And on dealing with the tragedy, he continued, “It has its moments where it gets rough. You just feel for those people. And their families.”
At the time, the first night of Astroworld coincided with the release of two songs off his album Utopia, which was otherwise still in progress. After initially struggling to complete the record, Travis ultimately found getting back in the studio to be cathartic.
“Making music, you think about things that go on in life and things that happen in your life, and you dial in on things,” he said. “That moment for families, for the city, you know, it was devastating.”
The 32-year-old continued, “And when it came to making, like even finishing the album, I got back into it probably, I don’t know, months and months and months after. 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.”
Frazer Harrison/Getty Images
Per forensic documents viewed by E! News at the time of the Nov. 2021 accident, 10 individuals—of which the youngest was 9-year-old Ezra Blount—died of compression asphyxia when the crowd of 50,000 present in Houston’s NRG Park began to surge towards the stage, their deaths listed as accidental. In addition more than 2,400 other concertgoers reportedly required medical attention as a result of the crowd surge.
In June, almost two years after the 2021 tragedy, a Texas grand jury determined Travis would not face criminal charges, issuing six no-bills regarding the incident.
After the decision was released, the 10-time Grammy nominee’s attorney Kent Schafer said in a statement to E! News that the ruling “confirms what we have known all along—that Travis Scott is not responsible for the Astroworld tragedy.”
He added, “Now that this chapter is closed, we hope for the government efforts to focus on what is most important—stopping future heartbreaking tragedies like AstroWorld from ever occurring again.”
For the latest breaking news updates, click here to download the E! News App