Ari Lennox Expresses Her Challenges Opening Up for Rod Wave on Tour: “I Was Never Comfortable” [Video]

Ari Lennox candidly shared the “tough and heavy” experience of opening for Rod Wave during his recent tour in an Instagram livestream.

During the Live, Ari said that she “never felt comfortable” while on Rod Wave’s tour, expressing the challenges she faced with the aggressive crowds in her opening slot.

“I just remember every show, just racing to get off stage, racing to get through my set,” she shared. “And then I found a spot where I was comfortable, and I started trying to communicate with the audience. Then I realized they were getting angry at me affirming them. I was like, ‘Okay this is… You’re getting angry that I’m affirming you?’ This is not my crowd, and it’ll never be. And that’s alright.”

Describing the tour as “tough and heavy on my soul,” Ari highlighted a distressing incident when a member of the crowd threw a bottle at her.

“That side of the stage, I felt the energy,” she said. “I wasn’t surprised that it happened. I felt it. It was just all darkness, that’s literally the energy that was coming from the left side.”

According to the singer, she could be “singing [her] ass off,” but the crowd still wouldn’t “give a shit,” she said.

Just last November, the Dreamville singer confronted a challenging crowd after a water bottle was thrown directly at her, hitting her arm. Subsequently, she was escorted off the stage prematurely due to the incident.

At the next show, she appeared on stage wearing a red helmet and facemask, “I don’t know, should I keep this shit on or what?”