In the two years since the Astroworld Festival disaster, in which 10 people were killed and hundreds more were injured, Travis Scott has said very little about the incident. Part of that was out of necessity; aside from an interview in the immediate aftermath (which didn’t go well for him), he spent much of the next year out of the spotlight, and this year, he focused on rolling out his album Utopia and its promotional tour as efficiently as possible — perhaps to avoid a media furor over Astroworld.
But he had to address the disaster eventually, and it appears he chose a friendly forum to do so: GQ‘s Men Of The Year cover story. During the interview, he talked about taking a break from music due to the festival disaster and its mental impact on him.
“Making music, you think about things that go on in life and things that happen in your life, and you dial in on things. That moment for families, for the city, you know, it was devastating. And 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. 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.”
Travis also said he was “overly devastated” by the deaths, comparing the fans to his own family. “I always think about it,” he admitted. “Those fans were like my family. You know, I love my fans to the utmost… It has its moments where it gets rough and…yeah. You just feel for those people. And their families.”
He’s still addressing the fallout from the festival, as well. While a court ruled he would not be charged with any criminal offenses in June this year, a massive combined lawsuit against him and Live Nation from the hundreds of victims and survivors is still ongoing.
