Kamasi Washington reveals he cut his Austria show short after security guard assaulted his father

Washington performed "Truth" from his 2017 EP Harmony of Difference before cutting the show short.

His drummer Tony Austin shared footage of Washington's speech at Austria's Arena Wien, and wrote alongside the clip, "As we were entering our show at Arena Wien one of the security guards assaulted Kamasi’s father, Rickey Washington. When Kamasi calmly asked for and explanation from the security guard and his superior, they laughed in his face and told Kamasi that is father was acting like an asshole. It took everything in me to not respond to this level of hate with hate in return. Instead Kamasi kindly got on stage, explained to the audience what happened. We played and gave all our love to our audience for one song and left the venue as a united squad."

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Today was a tough day. As we were entering our show at #arenawien one of the security guards assaulted Kamasi’s father, @rickeywashington . When Kamasi calmly asked for and explanation from the security guard and his superior, they laughed in his face and told Kamasi that is father was acting like and asshole It took everything in me to not respond to this level of hate with hate in return. Instead Kamasi kindly got on stage, explained to the audience what happened. We played and gave all our love to our audience for one song and left the venue as a united squad. That was not cool @arenawien, Vienna Austria. #westcoastgetdown #fuckracism @kamasiwashington #unitedwestand

A post shared by Tony Austin (@tonyaustindrums) on Jul 8, 2019 at 12:59pm PDT

Arena Wien have since shared a statement about the events of last night, writing, "At the beginning we would like to apologize honestly and sincerely for the events of yesterday evening. Especially with the guests present, who were brought to an evening full of joy and unity. It should have been a nice party and we shared the anticipation with all those who were looking forward to visiting Kamasi Washington."

The post goes on to detail the events, and how Rickey Washington "expected an apology from the Securities department" with Kamasi Washington also demanding "the security officer of the site should be evicted."

Closing their statement, Arena Wien write, "Structural racism is a problem. In our shorter history we have always opposed racism, sexism and fascism. We have developed a reputation as a location that is clearly anti-fascist. Nevertheless, of course we are not immune to accusations of racist motives. The incidents are very regrettable for us. For us, the processing of the incident counts. Especially internally. As an association, critical self-reflection is very important to us."