Carson Daly on Woodstock '99: "I thought I was going to die"

15 August 2022, 17:52

The crowds at Woodstock '99 with Carson Daly inset. Picture: 1. James Devaney/WireImage/Getty 2. Frank Micelotta/ImageDirect/Getty

By Jenny Mensah

The TV personality, who was presenting MTV's TRL show at the time, has relived his experience of the event, which has now become the subject of a Netflix series.

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Carson Daly has spoken out about his time at Woodstock '99 and revealed that he thought he'd die.

The Netflix documentary Trainwreck: Woodstock '99, which tells the story of the ill-festival, has captured and shocked audiences at home and prompted discussions across the internet.

Now, Daly - who was the host of MTV's TRL at the time - has recounted his time at the festival and referred to it as one of his least fun memories from the era.

Sharing stills of himself on the docuseries, he wrote on Instagram: "I’ve been getting asked about #woodstock99 a ton recently due to the @netflix doc that’s out. All I can say is I thought I was going to die."

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He added: "It started off great, TRL live from the side of main stage interviewing all the bands (like Jay from Jamiroquai) & then started getting pelted with bottles, rocks, lighters, all of it. It got insane, fast. Nightfall, Limp plays “Break Stuff” & the prisoners were officially running the prison.

"My boss @MTV Dave says to our staff/crew backstage, “We can no longer guarantee your safety, it’s time to go!” I remember being in a production van driving recklessly through corn fields to get to safety. It was so crazy & a blur now. I just remember feeling like I was in another country during military conflict. I have so many fun memories from that era, this was not one of them. Needless to say, I haven’t taken the fam back to Rome, NY for a vacation."

Limp Bizkit were one of the bands accused of inciting a riot at the festival and frontman Fred Durst has previously defended his actions at the event and insisted he didn't see anyone hurt.

In a 2012 interview about Woodstock '99, Durst claimed: "When we were onstage, it was the greatest concert of all time. I had no idea that the finger would be pointed at me as a guy starting a riot. But I guess to this day, it's going to be something that Limp Bizkit f**ked up."

He also told the Washington Post: "I didn’t see anybody getting hurt. You don’t see that. When you’re looking out on a sea of people and the stage is twenty feet in the air and you’re performing, and you’re feeling your music, how do they expect us to see something bad going on?"

The festival ended on the Sunday night with a number of fires that were started after a group of peace campaigners gave out candles that were intended to be held aloft during headliner Red Hot Chili Peppers' song Under The Bridge.The festival ended on the Sunday night with a number of fires that were started after a group of peace campaigners gave out candles that were intended to be held aloft during headliner Red Hot Chili Peppers' song Under The Bridge. However, Durst believes they were never given the lions share of the blame.

"They needed someone to point the finger at," he claimed. "They needed a scapegoat. They're not going to put it on the dumb-ass who handed out candles to everybody and said, 'Lets' capture a moment. I bet everybody's gonna light them and hold them up'. After these living conditions, are they gonna burn it down? They're gonna burn it down."

Watch the nu-metal band in action at the event: