Music

Frank Ocean Had ‘Wild’ Last-Minute Meltdown at Coachella, Performer Claims

THIN ICE

“[Ocean] just straight-up was like, ‘Fuck this. I’m not doing this anymore,’” said Dan Powers, who claimed he was one of 120 ice skaters set to perform alongside Ocean.

U.S. singer Frank Ocean arrives for the BRIT Awards
REUTERS/Luke Macgregor

On Tuesday’s episode of their podcast “Empty Netters,” ex-hockey players Dan and Chris Powers shed more light on Frank Ocean’s eyebrow-raising, truncated Coachella performance Sunday evening. The Powers brothers said they were among 120 current and former professional ice skaters, including Olympians, who worked with Ocean for months on developing what was to be an elaborate Coachella production, until it was scrapped at the last minute and most of the performers were told the gig was off—on Ocean’s whim. An ankle injury reportedly forced Ocean’s hand in changing his Coachella performance last-minute, but the Powers said the situation is more complicated. “There was no malfunction. [Ocean] just straight-up was like, ‘Fuck this. I’m not doing this anymore.’ And [to] these 120 people [he] had bused out here, he was just like, ‘You guys aren’t doing shit now.’ So it was just like a wild flip,” Power said. Reps for Ocean have maintained that changes to his Coachella production were due to his ankle injury.

Read it at Variety

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