Astroworld Festival Victim’s Family Blasts Kanye West for ‘Idiotic’ Billie Eilish Callout – Report
The family of the youngest Astroworld Festival victim, 9-year-old Ezra Blount, has called out Kanye West over the recent social media post he made regarding Billie Eilish reportedly alluding to Travis Scott not stopping his show for the well-being and safety of his fans.
On Friday (Feb. 11), Rolling Stone published an article, in which Ezra's grandparents Bernon and Tercia Blount offered a response to Yeezy telling the pop superstar to apologize to La Flame following a misleading report, which said that Eilish stopped her concert last weekend for a fan who needed an inhaler. Kanye also spoke on his Coachella performance, where he plans to bring out Travis, sharing that he won't be hitting the stage unless Billie apologizes to the Houston rapper.
In response to Ye's IG post, Bernon Blount said, "To hear Kanye’s words, that’s hurtful to us. What an idiotic thing to say."
Ezra's grandmother Tericia added, "I think it's just crazy, and I hate to use that word, but I think it's ridiculous. She's making sure that she is caring for the patrons at her concert, and I just think that's crazy of Kanye to even let that demand come out of his mouth."
As previously reported, during Billie Eilish's show at Atlanta's State Farm Arena on Feb. 5, she briefly paused the concert for a fan, saying, "I wait for the people to be OK before I keep going."
Days later, after outlets shared unconfirmed reports that Eilish was subliminally referring to Travis' Astroworld tragedy, Kanye uploaded an screenshot of one blog post that included Eilish's quote from her show, and wrote as the caption, "COME ON BILLIE WE LOVE YOU PLEASE APOLOGIZE TO TRAV AND TO THE FAMILIES OF THE PEOPLE WHO LOST THEIR LIVES. NO ONE INTENDED THIS TO HAPPEN TRAV DIDN’T HAVE ANY IDEA OF WHAT WAS HAPPENING WHEN HE WAS ON STAGE AND WAS VERY HURT BY WHAT HAPPENED AND YES TRAV WILL BE WITH ME AT COACHELLA BUT NOW I NEED BILLIE TO APOLOGIZE BEFORE I PERFORM."
Billie Eilish clarified shortly after that in no way was she referring to Travis Scott.
She responded to Kanye via IG, writing, "literally never said a thing about travis. was just helping a fan."
Following the mass casualty event at Travis Scott's 2021 Astroworld Festival last November, which ended in 10 fatalities, Travis will no longer be headlining this year's Coachella festival and has been replaced by Billie Eilish and Kanye West.
Ezra Blount attended the event with his father and sat atop his dad's shoulders prior to the crowd surge. The surge caused his dad to pass out from pressure caused by attendees pushing towards the stage. Blount fell to the ground and was trampled in the crowd. He sustained numerous injuries such as organ damage and brain swelling, which landed him in a medically induced coma.
Blount was taken off life support on Nov. 14, 2021, days after Astroworld took place on Nov. 5, 2021.
XXL has reached out to a rep for Kanye West for a comment.