Taylor Swift has discussed the fear she felt about going on a huge stadium tour in the wake of the Manchester Arena bombing and Las Vegas shooting.
Writing in a special piece for Elle magazine, in honour of her upcoming 30th birthday, the Shake It Off singer explains how the two tragic attacks – which both took place at music events – affected her mindset.
In a section subtitled “My Biggest Fear”, she writes: “After the Manchester Arena bombing and the Vegas concert shooting, I was completely terrified to go on tour this time because I didn’t know how we were going to keep 3 million fans safe over seven months.
“There was a tremendous amount of planning, expense, and effort put into keeping my fans safe.”
Taylor also explains how her “fear of violence has continued into my personal life”.
“I carry QuikClot army grade bandage dressing, which is for gunshot or stab wounds,” she adds. “Websites and tabloids have taken it upon themselves to post every home address I’ve ever had online.
“You get enough stalkers trying to break into your house and you kind of start prepping for bad things.”
One of the security measures brought in for the Reputation tour was the use of cutting-edge facial recognition cameras, Rolling Stone reported last year.
Photograph of attendees who were unwittingly captured on camera (the devices were fixed into a kiosk playing clips of Taylor’s rehearsals) were sent to a Nashville office where they were checked against a database of Taylor’s known stalkers.
The Reputation tour saw Taylor perform a total of 53 shows, in venues which often held upwards of 60,000 people a night, and the star’s first concert took place in May 2018, almost a year on from the Manchester Arena attack which killed 22 people after an Ariana Grande concert.
The October 2017 Vegas shooting saw 59 people killed when Stephen Paddock opened fire on an open air musical festival.
In her Elle piece, Taylor also discusses a number of other personal issues, telling fans her mother’s cancer has returned.
Taylor first revealed her mum, Andrea Swift, was suffering from cancer in 2015 and in the newly-released piece, she writes: “I’ve had to learn how to handle serious illness in my family. Both of my parents have had cancer, and my mom is now fighting her battle with it again.
“It’s taught me that there are real problems and then there’s everything else. My mom’s cancer is a real problem.”
Read Taylor’s full “30 things I learned before turning 30” article here.