The Vans Warped Tour returns to Australia at the end of the month after a near decade-long absence with a lineup featuring The Offspring, Parkway Drive, Millencolin, and more, but be thankful that an artist who played the London leg of the tour isn’t making the trip Down Under.
Why? Because if his recent live antics are anything to go by, there’ll be a lot less broken bones.
American rapper and slam poet George Watsky decided to conclude his Vans Warped Tour show in London over the weekend, performing with fellow MC Wax, with an ambitious set-closer: a 12 metre high leap from the lighting rig, as NME reports.
While the backing band began vamping into a round of Pink Floyd’s ‘Another Brick In The Wall (pt 2)’, the 27-year-old Watsky began scaling the rigging on the Alexandra Palace stage. Once reaching the roof, he then leapt down into the crowd in a move that could rival even Miguel’s high-profile scissor kick failure at the Billboard Music Awards in the poor judgement stakes.
While the rapper suffered some light bruising from the ambitious stage dive, his fans didn’t fare so well. One girl left with a broken arm, another male fan was hurt, reportedly injuring his back from Watsky’s roof leap. Shortly after the incident, Watsky, along with the injured fans were taken out from the show on stretchers.
“The jump was not awesome, it was not badass, and it was not ballsy,” admits Watsky of the Vans Warped Tour mishap in a lengthy apology posted to his official Facebook page, in which the rapper-poet explains how “stupid and wildly irresponsible” his stage dive was. “The jump was not awesome, it was not badass, and it was not ballsy,”
Watsky says that “besides some nicks, bruises, and the shame of endangering the crowd” he was not injured, but details how “the fall broke a girl’s arm and hurt another guy.”
The rapper explains that he and his tour manger “stayed at the hospital for 6 hours ’til the visiting period ended, and all I know about the man’s condition at this point is that he has no breaks and the injury seems to be muscular/ bruising.”
Adding that: “I’ll be going back in the morning to try to apologize, but I wouldn’t blame the guy if he spits in my face.”
In defence, Watsky explains “my mindset is that it was a huge overreach in the heat of the moment. No, I was not drunk or on drugs.” But apologises that “I have no excuse for my actions… in the last year of touring, I’ve done increasingly risky things, maybe pushing myself by some dumb sense I am conquering my early timidity,” he writes. Adding that:
“I pride myself on trying to put on a good show and always giving 100% energy, but jumping off some high shit doesn’t make someone a good musician or performer. I feel fucking terrible. I made a boneheaded decision that got people hurt, and it’s extremely lucky it wasn’t worse.
Putting your own body on the line is one thing, but putting other people in harm’s way is inexcusable. Today I let down my supporters, I let down the Warped Tour and I let down my band and the people who work their asses off behind the scenes to make these shows happen. My #1 priority right now is to somehow make this right for the folks who were hurt.
Watsky vows to complete the remaining six Warped Tour dates rather than cancelling; “I will do the shows, as usual I will meet everyone afterwards, and I will NOT be jumping off anything. I am deeply sorry and I promise to learn from this mistake.”
