Taylor Swift Was Terrified to Continue Eras Tour Amid Crippling Anxiety After Vienna Terrorist Plot: 'We Dodged a Massacre'

Taylor Swift's worst fears started to come to life in the midst of the European leg of her record-breaking Eras Tour.

In August 2024, the pop icon was forced to cancel three concerts in Vienna after police discovered plans of a terrorist plot at one of the scheduled concerts in the Austrian capital.

While she waited to break silence on the matter until after she completed the remainder of her European shows in London, Swift's realtime emotions have finally been revealed in episode one of her End of an Era docuseries — which hit Disney+ on Friday, December 12.

"I thought this would be a tour I would be proud of. It’s like a force to be reckoned with in global culture. So, never in my life did I think we would have a terrorist plot," Swift recalled during a sit-down interview in London — just days after the terrifying situation went down.

The "Love Story" singer opened up about feeling flooded with anxiety while trying to resume the Eras Tour in England after avoiding what could have been a deadly catastrophe.

While she's performed on stage an endless amount of times, Swift said emerging in front of her fans after the Vienna terrorist plot was one of the most difficult experiences of her career.

Overcome with tears, Swift expressed: "This was the first one I feel like – I don’t know – I’m skating on thin ice or something. We’ve had a series of violent, scary things happen to the tour. Like, we dodged a massacre situation and so I’ve just been kind of all over the place."

"We dodged a massacre situation," the "Cruel Summer" hitmaker emphasized.

The "series of violent, scary things" that plagued the Eras Tour included a heartbreaking July 2024 incident in which a stabbing broke out at a Swift-themed dance party in Southport, England, leaving three young girls knifed to death and injuring 10 other individuals.

Swift herself reached out to the victims' families after the horrific attack in an effort to express her condolences and extend an invitation to her London shows.

While recalling the traumatic incident during her docuseries, Swift had to pause as her eyes filled with tears.

Noting she was having "a hard time explaining" the stabbings, Swift promised not to cry when meeting with the victims' loved ones.

"I swear to God. I’m not going to be doing this; I’m going to be smiling, so any of this gets out of the way before you ever go on stage," she declared.

"For three and a half hours, they don’t have to worry about you," she added, comparing her job to a pilot being responsible for their passengers.

She continued: "It’s like you’re a pilot flying the plane and if you were like, ‘Oh there’s turbulence ahead, I don’t know if we’re going to land in Dallas, like I’m going to try hard, but I don’t know if I can figure out how to land through this turbulence.’ Like everyone on the plane is going to freak out. You just have to have a cool, calm, collected tone …"

Swift admitted the chain of unfortunate events were among the most difficult situations she's had to face throughout her career.

"I’ve been performing for 20 years. From a mental standpoint, being afraid something’s going to happen to your fans at any moment. This is a new challenge," the 14-time Grammy winner reflected. "I want to keep all the nerves I have away from the crowd because when you’re sort of the ringleader of this show, they can sense any kind of shift energetically in you and you have to really focus and factor that in – you’re at the Eras Tour and nothing is wrong!"