Carson Daly Thought He ‘Was Going to Die’ at Woodstock ‘99
TV and radio presenter Carson Daly recalled the terrifying scenes he witnessed at Woodstock ’99 and admitted he thought he was “going to die” as the festival descended into chaos.
At the time, he was a host on MTV’s TRL show and a member of the team sent to broadcast live from the event. But as detailed in the new Netflix documentary Trainwreck: Woodstock '99 – which features footage of Daly at the festival – the planned “peace and love” celebration became a riot.
“I’ve been getting asked about Woodstock ’99 a ton recently due to the [Netflix] doc that’s out,” he posted on Instagram alongside pictures from his coverage. “All I can say is I thought I was going to die.”
He continued: “It started off great, TRL live from the side of [the] main stage interviewing all the bands .” He soon began “getting pelted with bottles, rocks, lighters, all of it,” and remembered: “It got insane, fast.” The situation is commonly felt to have become uncontrollable when Limp Bizkit performed their track “Break Stuff” and the audience did just that. “The prisoners were officially running the prison,” Daly said.
Round about that point, the MTV unit boss told his team, “We can no longer guarantee your safety; it’s time to go!” Daly continued: “I remember being in a production van driving recklessly through corn fields to get to safety. It was so crazy and a blur now. I just remember feeling like I was in another country during military conflict.”
He noted: “I have so many fun memories from that era; this was not one of them,” and concluded that he’d never taken his family to Rome, New York – the scene of the drama – for a vacation.
Watch Trailer for ‘Trainwreck: Woodstock ’99’