Travis Scott Spokeswoman Addresses Astroworld Tragedy, Says He Couldn’t Stop the Show

A spokeswoman for Travis Scott is responding to what went wrong in the wake of Astroworld.

In an interview with “CBS Mornings” on Friday, former Baltimore Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake addressed the tragedy and chaos at the Houston festival which left nine people dead after a crowd surge.

“Travis had no idea what was going on until well later, hours and hours later,” she told Gayle King. “There was so much chaos, there was so much breakdown in communication, and that’s why it was important for me to work to try to help them out. Nine people have lost their lives, nine families are grieving.”

As a concerned mother herself, Rawlings-Blake said she sympathizes with the families. “When you have crowds of 50,000 people, anything can happen,” she said. “Travis is taking responsibility for moving forward and trying to make sure this never happens again to anyone’s child.”

According to Rawlings-Blake, Travis and his team attended an after-party at Dave & Busters to “regroup,” and was informed by his team “after he had already gone from the event.”

“They were trying to figure out what was going on. It was hours and hours after the concert when they actually found out the tragedy, how the tragedy unfolded,” she said. “And he has not stopped grieving for these families. He knows that he is who he is because of his fans. His love for his fans is so deep.”

She also shot down claims that Travis had the ability to end the show. “This notion that Travis had the ability to stop the concert is ludicrous,” she said. “They have a 59-page operations plan, and it clearly says the only two people that have the authority to stop the concert were the executive producer and the concert producer.”

“He was not responsible for this, but he wants to be responsible for the solution,” added the former mayor.

On Thursday, a ninth person died as a result of injuries sustained from the festival. Bharti Shahani, a 22-year-old senior at Texas A&M University, attended Astroworld with her sister and cousin, but the two were separated during a crowd surge.

Rawlings-Blake said that Travis “takes safety so seriously” and he stopped the show multiple times to “try to get a sense of what was going on.” “Just like those police officers that were standing in front of the stage, he could not tell what was going on,” she explained.

Travis has reached out to the grieving families and offered to pay the funeral costs. “He’s very respectful of their need for privacy and space as they grieve,” she said.

At least 79 lawsuits had been filed in Houston court, representing more than 150 injured victims or families. On Friday, civil rights attorney Ben Crump announced that he would be filing more than 90 additional civil lawsuits on behalf of over 200 victims of the festival.