Live Nation’s CEO Really Doesn’t Want To Be Deposed About Astroworld
Live Nation is aggressively pushing to prevent a deposition of its chief executive officer Michael Rapino over the deadly Astroworld Festival crowd rush, and the live music giant hopes Texas’s Supreme Court will support their efforts.
While all of the wrongful death suits have been settled earlier this year, the suits tied to hundreds of attendees injured at the show are still active. The Astroworld Trial Court had first granted a motion for Rapino’s deposition last April, and Live Nation went to an appellate court to challenge that decision. The appeal was dropped after the Astroworld Plaintiffs’ Liaison counsel had withdrawn the deposition when the wrongful death cases had settled. By late June, though, a deposition was scheduled again for the remaining plaintiffs. Live Nation appealed again, escalating the matter to the Supreme Court last month.
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The company argued in the appeal that Rapino “played no role in the 2021 Astroworld Festival” and that “he had no ‘unique or superior personal knowledge’; relevant to any claim or defense.” The news was first reported by Puck.
“Mr. Rapino neither attended the Festival nor visited the grounds,” Live Nation’s counsel wrote in the appeal. “He relied on others, who had superior knowledge of the Festival, to complete their tasks. In the Festival’s aftermath, Mr. Rapino’s communications were limited to those necessary for him to conduct his duties as Live Nation’s CEO.”
However, the plaintiffs responded to Live Nation’s petition last week, arguing that “Rapino’s personal involvement was key to establishing the Festival.” The plaintiffs wrote that Rapino was a major figure in booking Travis Scott in 2018 and 2019, also claiming that “Rapino knew of Scott’s dangerous concert antics.
“Rapino’s personal involvement in the 2021 Festival must be evaluated in light of his years of experience with Scott,” plaintiffs’ counsel wrote.
The plaintiffs’ response referenced some of the details of the crowd rush that were first detailed in the Houston Police Department’s extensive report on the incident released in 2023. The response references an ominous message a security worker named Reece Wheeler had sent to security executive Shawna Boardman, saying that “I would want it on the record that I didn’t advise this to continue. Someone’s going to end up dead.”
The response also referenced an email Rapino sent to Live Nation executive Brad Wavra in the immediate aftermath of the crowd rush, after Wavra had emailed him noting that authorities hadn’t canceled the second day but noted several cardiac arrests and “5 know [sic] dead” and asked if the show would proceed Saturday or not.
“Let’s wait for confirmation on deaths once statement is made, we can decide,” the email said. “If 5 died we would cancel.
“Remarkably, Live Nation claims that Rapino was not the decision maker on whether to cancel the Festival,” plaintiffs’ counsel wrote. “This email proves otherwise, and Plaintiffs want an opportunity to examine Rapino about it.”
The counsel further referenced a private call between Scott and Rapino after the festival, noting that Scott spoke about it during his own deposition last year. They called that conversation “central to the need for his deposition,” further noting that “Scott has testified about this conversation, but Rapino’s version remains a mystery.
“This is not a case where the CEO merely received business reports and only had final policy authority,” the plaintiffs’ counsel wrote. “It is a case in which the witness has unique knowledge of key facts; there is no other way to discover those facts.”
Last week, Live Nation asked the court to give until August 30 to issue a response to the plaintiffs. Regarding Rapino’s email, a rep for the company said that the email “shows Michael Rapino doing what one would hope any CEO would do: confirming that if there were deaths the second show would be canceled.”
The Astroworld fallout is just one of the major legal actions Live Nation is currently facing. The Department of Justice filed a bombshell complaint against the company in May, accusing the company of operating as a monopoly and calling for Live Nation and Ticketmaster to be broken up 14 years after merging in 2010. Ten more states jumped on that suit as plaintiffs earlier this month. Live Nation has consistently denied the monopoly allegations.
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