Taylor Swift's 2019 Essay Revealed How Concert Violence Was One of Her 'Biggest Fears'

Taylor Swift has been vigilant about concert safety for years, and the fact that she had to cancel three concerts in Vienna, Austria tells you just how serious the terrorist threat was. Even though two suspects have been arrested, government officials erred on the side of caution while they look other people who are possibly involved. For Swift, this was a nightmare come true. 

In 2019, she wrote an ELLE essay on “30 Things I Learned Before Turning 30.” Under the topic of “My biggest fear,” Swift discussed how “the Manchester Arena bombing and the Vegas concert shooting” impacted her as an artist. “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,” she revealed. “There was a tremendous amount of planning, expense, and effort put into keeping my fans safe.” Understandably, her high-profile profession requires a lot of security and planning, but those violent incidents also made her change aspects of her personal life, too.

“My fear of violence has continued into my personal life. I carry QuikClot army grade bandage dressing, which is for gunshot or stab wounds,” she wrote while criticizing “websites and tabloids” for doxing her home addresses online. “You get enough stalkers trying to break into your house and you kind of start prepping for bad things,” she added. Swift isn’t wrong to worry about her fans and her personal safety, Sandra Bullock’s terrifying home invasion experience feels traumatic to read about even years later. 

In 2014, Bullock was home alone because her then-four-year-old son Louis stayed at the nanny’s house that evening. “It was the one night that our nanny goes, ‘Let me just take him to my apartment which is up the street because you’re gonna be out late,’” Bullock told Red Table Talk. “Had he been home, I would’ve run to the closet, and it would have changed our destiny forever.” A stalker had broken into her Bel Air residence while she was sleeping. He was there for more than an hour before she realized an intruder had broken in, according to CNN. The incident changed Bullock’s life forever. “I wasn’t the same after that. I was unraveling. I haven’t been alone since the day it happened,” she admitted.

So, Swift and other A-list celebrities’ concerns about safety are valid — and it’s a global issue for them. But as Swift reminded everyone in 2019, there is still “good in the world.” She noted, “We have to live bravely in order to truly feel alive, and that means not being ruled by our greatest fears.” Still, this major scare will change security for her Wembley Stadium concerts that are still scheduled from Aug. 15-20, and her rumored cameo at the Closing Ceremony at the Olympics.

Before you go, click here to see more celebrities who have suffered through home invasions.