Jerrod Niemann Shares Story of Tour Bus Fire
Jerrod Niemann’s tour bus went up in flames on Tuesday (3/6) after he and good friend Lee Brice performed in Chattanooga, Tennessee at Heart Strings for Hope, a benefit for St. Jude Children’s Hospital. Niemann, who says he’s “thankful” that everyone is safe after the incident, sat down with CountryMusicIsLove to tell the story of what happened the night his loaner tour bus caught fire (that’s right, it wasn’t even his regular bus!).
Niemann tells us he, his dad, uncle, merchandise guy, and manager were on the bus with Brice and songwriter Jon Stone when it caught on fire. Stone, who was also on Brice’s bus when it caught fire in January, was the first to notice the fire.
“[Stone] comes on first and I’m in the room that’s actually on fire and don’t even know it,” Niemann recalls. “I put my guitar up- ‘cause this bus wasn’t our bus, it was a bus I was trying for a day to see if we liked it. I didn’t have my stuff on it, so I just put my guitar in the back. And Jon comes up and says, ‘Hey, I think your bus is on fire. There’s like some black smoke coming out of it.'”
At first, Niemann didn’t believe it.
“I said, ‘No, man. There’s no way. Your gun’s shot from Lee’s bus. There’s no way we’re on the bus and it’s already on fire. The heater or something kicked on.’ ‘Cause it kinda has the same smell, a burning sensation, nothing crazy.”
Lee overheard the fire talk and went outside to investigate.
“He just goes outside and comes back and goes, ‘No, the bus is on fire. There’s flames now. Get off the bus,'” the “Lover, Lover” signer explains. “So I was like, ‘Whatever, maybe they’re playing a joke. I don’t know’ so I grab my bag and my guitar. My dad grabs his coat and bag and we all just kind of shuffle of the bus. As soon as I walk off the bus, there’s these flames coming out the back. And it starts spreading real quick.”
Jerrod made sure someone had already called 911 then stood by and did the only thing he could do- watch the bus go up in flames.
“The fire spread over the top of the bus then the wheels started bending in and they popped. The freakiest part was the pressure built up so much inside the bus that the windshields blew out of the front. It went ‘Bam!’. It was like a movie, like in ‘Die Hard.’ So that’s when we turned around with all the adrenaline thinking we were in a ‘Die Hard ‘movie, we took a picture to the Grim Reaper and said, ‘Here’s to you Grim Reaper!’
“It was just a crazy moment,” he says.
Chattanooga firefighters are still trying to determine what caused the fire.
