Travis Scott does NOT take responsibility for AstroWorld tragedy

Travis Scott has broken his silence following the fatal stampede at his AstroWorld concert last month, but is refusing to take responsibility as he faces a wave of lawsuits.

Speaking out about the November 5 tragedy that left 10 dead in Houston, Scott sat down with podcaster Charlemagne Tha God for an interview published on Thursday morning.

In the interview, Scott blamed his ‘in-ear’ person for not urging him to stop the show sooner, and claimed that he wasn’t aware of or responsible for the fatal stampede and crowd crush. 

Scott said that he is ‘1000 percent’ certain he did everything he could have to prevent the tragedy, and claims he didn’t hear the screams and cries for help as the crowd went out of control. 

‘Things happen, you know, and it’s just been such a time, and I’m just trying to just really figure things out,’ he said when asked why he was breaking his silence.

In a fiery statement to DailyMail.com, the family of one of the victims killed at AstroWorld responded to the interview saying: ‘Every time Travis Scott opens his mouth in an effort to avoid responsibility and accountability, he further exacerbates the pain of those that lost loved ones.’ 

‘Because he won’t voluntarily do so, we intend to force Travis Scott to accept responsibility for his conduct, in court, in front of a jury,’ added the statement from the family of 21-year-old Axel Acosta, who perished in the stampede.

Scott struggled to contain his emotion at times as he spoke about the families that lost loved ones in the crowd stampede.

‘They lost their loved ones, I just always wanna be there for them, I’m gonna fix this problem and make sure this doesn’t happen in the future and be the number one voice for this. We gotta figure it out,’ he said.

Scott said that he had been ‘in a room’ processing the tragedy, but Charlemagne pressed him on photos that emerged last month showing him carousing on a golf course with Michael Jordan and actor Mark Wahlberg. 

‘It was just Thanksgiving, you know, and they were there,’ the rapper explained. ‘That was more just like a personal time.’

Charlemagne also asked Scott whether his encouragement of ‘raging’ was to blame, referring to the concert culture similar to mosh pits.

‘Raging just the experience of having fun,’ Scott claimed, adding that raging was an inducement to ‘help others and love each other.’ 

‘What happened here isn’t off Travis Scott music,’ he said, adding that ‘music is healing’ and suggesting that the tragedy might inspire future lyrics.

Scott claimed that he was only told that the show was going to end after the guest, referring to Drake, came on stage.

He said he was never told why the show was ending or what was occurring in the crowd. ‘That’s what came through my ear,’ he said. 

Scott blamed the media for pinning responsibility for the tragedy on him. 

‘Yeah, you know, the media, they want to put it on me, but at the end of the day I don’t think it’s more so about that, it’s more so about stepping up to figure out what the problem is,’ he said. ‘Yeah, you know, I’m the face of the festival, I’m a artist, so yeah.’

Scott vowed that he was going to ‘fix this for the future people’ and ‘be the number one voice for this.’ 

The rapper dismissed online rumors that his music and the AstroWorld concert had ‘Satanic’ imagery or connections, insisting that he is a ‘man of God.’

‘Evil is not what we’re a part of. We’re not trying to be a part of that, we’re trying to be a part of joy,’ he said. 

Asked what he would do differently in future performances, Scot said: ‘I’ll do the same thing I’ve been doing just double, you know, making sure everybody is on post, and you know double down and make sure that everyone is locked in.’ 

Throughout the interview, Scott returned to the theme of vowing to ensure that similar tragedies do not occur in the future.

‘I definitely wanna step in to figure out how can we fix this in the future. What can we do to change these things?’ he said. 

Asked who bears ultimate responsibility for the AstroWorld disaster, Scott replied: ‘It’s crazy ’cause something tragic happened here, and what I’ve just been trying to get to the bottom of is what happened here, how it happened here, and I think the families are owned that, I feel like you know the community is owed that.’

‘I feel like we’re owed that to know just, like, what happened. And, you know, I don’t wanna speak to soon, I just want to figure out, you know, what happened, you know.’

Scott’s Astroworld Festival turned fatal on November 5 during his set when the crowd of 50,000 people surged, resulting in a panic.

Ten people were killed, ages ranging from nine to 27, and hundreds were injured; 300 people were treated at the site and 13 were hospitalized in connection with the incident. 

Several lawsuits have been filed in the wake of Astroworld that name defendants as Scott, guest performer Drake, promoter Live Nation and individuals affiliated with Houston’s NRG Park and Scoremore Holdings. 

One lawsuit alone, which was filed in mid-November, seeks $2 billion on behalf of 282 victims.

Scott denied in Wednesday’s interview that the wave of lawsuits he is facing influenced his decision to speak publicly. 

‘It’s not about that,’ he said. ‘At the end of the day you’re a human being.’ 

On Monday, the Sicko Mode rapper filed legal documents requesting that a suit from festival attendee Jessie Garcia filed against him and several of his businesses be dismissed with prejudice. 

Scott issued a ‘general denial’ to all the allegations in Garcia’s suit, TMZ reported.

Sources close to the star say he is planning to issue a similar response to the dozens of cases, worth billions of dollars, that have been filed against him in wake of the tragedy. 

In an order issued on Tuesday, the Board of Judges of the Civil Trial Division of the Harris County District Courts in Houston granted a request by attorney Brent Coon to have all pretrial matters in the various lawsuits be handled by one judge. If any of the lawsuits go to trial, the case would return to its original court.

‘This consolidation will promote the expeditious and efficient administration of justice,’ the two-page order said.

All pretrial motions and issues in the lawsuits will be heard by state District Judge Kristen Hawkins.

Michael Lyons, an attorney for the family of 27-year-old Mirza ‘Danish’ Baig, said he viewed the offer to pay for funeral costs partly as a public relations ploy by Scott to ‘soften people up’ in the court of public opinion. The Baig family has also declined the rapper’s offer.

Families of several other victims have reacted similarly and refused Scott’s financial compensation. 

Meanwhile, Scott has reiterated that he was unaware of the chaos erupting in the the crowd that night and did not know that concertgoers were being seriously injured despite the fact that Houston Police Department declared a mass casualty situation at 9.40pm. Scott continued playing for another 40 minutes. 

Ed McPherson, another one of Scott’s lawyers, said just days after the concert his team didn’t get the message, and that cops at the event seemed unaware of it too.

‘This obviously was a systemic breakdown that we really need to get to the bottom of before he start pointing fingers at anyone,’ McPherson said last month. 

‘We’ve seen footage of police just walking about and not looking like it was a mass casualty event. Clearly, the important thing is that never got to Travis, never got to Travis’ crew. He is up there trying to perform. He does not have any ability to know what’s going on down below. Certainly on a mass level.

He continued: ‘Travis didn’t really understand the full effect of everything until the next morning. Truly, he did not know what was going on.

‘He’s on a riser at one point, he sees one boy down and asks security to stop the show. You say an ambulance but it looked more like a golf cart with lights, he wasn’t sure what that was but he stopped the show for that.’

The day after the tragedy, Scott took to his own defense on his Instagram account. 

‘My fans really mean the world to me and I always want to leave them with a positive experience,’ he said Nov. 6, in a video posted to his stories.

‘Anytime I can make out anything that’s going on, ya know, I stop the show and you know, help them get the help they need. I could just never imagine the severity of the situation.’

He continued: ‘I’m honestly just devastated… I could never imagine anything like this just happening.’

Scott and the event organizers are also the focus of a criminal investigation by Houston police.

Police have said they are reviewing surveillance video provided by concert promoter Live Nation, as well as dozens of clips of the show shared on social media. Investigators also planned to speak with Live Nation representatives, Scott and concertgoers. 

No timetable has been set for when the investigation will be completed.