Taylor Swift broke down in tears as she reflected on the darker moments of her record setting Eras Tour, including a thwarted terror attack and the mass stabbing that left three of her young fans dead.
Swift made the emotional comments in her new docuseries, “Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour | The End of an Era,” the first two episodes of which were released on Disney+ on Friday.
During the European leg of her tour in 2024, a suspected terrorist plot led Swift to cancel her three shows scheduled from Aug. 8-10 in Vienna, Austria. The pop star was planning to perform to an estimated 170,000 fans during that stint.
On Aug. 7 — just one day before Swift was set to perform at Vienna's Ernst Happel Stadium — Austrian police confirmed the planned attack targeting Swift's concerts. The artist then canceled her Vienna shows.
"I thought that this would be a tour I was very proud of ... never in my life did I think we would have a terrorist plot," Swift said in the docuseries.
Following the terror threat, Swift carried out her final five shows in Europe, all of which were in London.
The docuseries revisits the period leading up to her London shows, capturing Swift's thoughts at that time.
"It’s just kind of a weird feeling going into these last five shows in Europe," Swift said. "We’ve done like 128 shows so far, but this is the first one where I feel like ... I’m skating on thin ice or something," she added.
Swift continued to discuss the "series of very violent, scary things" that happened during her tour.
"We dodged, like, a massacre situation," she said. "And so I’ve just been kind of all over the place."
She then addressed the stabbing that killed 3 young girls at a Taylor Swift-themed dance class in England in July, 2024.
"There was this horrible attack in Liverpool at a Taylor Swift-themed dance party, and it was little kids that — " Swift said before taking an emotional pause.
"I have a hard time explaining it," she continued, as she broke down into tears.
In the hours leading up to her first London show, Swift said she would be meeting some of the families of the stabbing victims.
"I’m gonna meet some of these families tonight and put on a pop concert, you know?" Swift said through tears.
"When I meet them, I’m not gonna do this,” Swift said about being emotional. “I’m gonna be smiley.”
"From a mental standpoint, being like afraid that something’s gonna happen to your fans at any moment, this is a new challenge," Swift went on to say.
Despite her mental distress, she said she wants to hide her nerves from the crowd.
"When you’re sort of the ringleader of this show, they can sense any kind of shift energetically in you," she said.
The docuseries features a clip of Swift backstage after she successfully completed her first Eras Tour show in London.
"We're back," she says with a smile on her face.
After the show, Swift called her now-fiancé Travis Kelce, telling him "I'm so happy," to which he replied "I can hear it in your voice."
"It's like the crowd knew that I needed a pick-me-up," she told him.
Swift concluded her record-shattering Eras Tour in Vancouver, British Colombia in Dec., 2024, which is now the highest-grossing tour in history.
