King Kong has some newly found competition as Jared Leto has made history, becoming the first person to legally climb to the top of New York City’s famous Empire State Building.
The Oscar-winning actor scaled 1200 feet before reaching the top of the skyscraper in promotion of his band, Thirty Seconds to Mars’ upcoming 2024 Seasons World Tour.
His climb began on the 86th floor, where he then went up the east side of the building until reaching the 104th floor. His journey took roughly 20 minutes all up.
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The 51-year-old musician told Today in an exclusive interview, “I made it, I’m alive, I made it to the top,” before adding, “I was just saying I saw my mother in the window of the 80th floor and that was a nice surprise.”
Leto reveals he has been in love with the city of New York since he was a kid, and has been seen climbing its buildings many times before.
“It’s incredible,” he said. “It’s incredible, to watch the sunrise overlooking the city that’s meant so much to me ever since I was a kid. New York’s been the place you went to make your dreams come true. And as a young kid, I wanted to be an artist and New York was the place that you came to be an artist and the Empire State Building was always that symbol for me.”
While showing his calloused and bloody hands, he adds, “It was very challenging as you can see, I always had a fascination with the Empire State Building. I love to climb.”
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His journey up the Empire State Building was in support of his band Thirty Seconds to Mars’ new 2024 world tour for their latest album, It’s The End Of the World But It’s a Beautiful Thing.
“We’re launching a world tour,” he explained. “Thirty Seconds to Mars is back on the road. It was in celebration of the tour and doing those things that you aspire to do.”
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Whilst celebrating he admitted that the climb was harder than anticipated.
“I was more excited than nervous to tell you the truth,” he said. “But I have to be honest, it was very, very hard. It was a lot harder than I thought it would be. Just the endurance that it took, the stamina that it took, it was very sharp.”
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Jared and Shannon Leto’s Thirty Seconds to Mars’ Seasons World Tour 2024 plans to start off on March 15th in Latin America, before moving to Europe, then on July 26th to North America. The world tour will wrap up on September 19th in New Zealand.
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