Jerrod Niemann Bus Fire Has Singer Thanking God for His Life

Posted Mar 7th 2012 10:45AM by Erin Duvall
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Rick Diamond, Getty Images

Jerrod Niemann is safe, albeit a little distraught, after his tour bus caught fire in Chattanooga, Tenn., last night (March 6). The 'Shinin' on Me' singer had just finished a performance at a St. Jude Benefit and was relaxing on his bus with Lee Brice, songwriter Jon Stone, Jerrod's father and uncle, when a member of the entourage noticed something was wrong.

"We're in [the bus] and Jon comes over and says 'Your bus is on fire,'" Jerrod told TV station WRCB/Chattanooga. "And I'm like, 'Dude, your gun's shot. Our bus is not on fire.' I thought it was the heater. So I went to the thermostat and it says 'Auto Cool.' So Lee gets off the bus and is like, 'Dude, that's black smoke. Your bus is on fire.'"

Everyone got off the bus just moments before an explosion.

"Pretty soon we hear this 'boom!' and we think it's the fuel line, but we look and the whole front windshield was just blown out," Jerrod describes. "This is where I have to say, to anyone that does not believe in God: if we were on the road driving, we would've never smelled it. The smell would've been going down the road. It would've lit up. I would've been in the back room. My own father -- I don't care if I die, but my own father and uncle -- this one night on the bus ... We're so, so thankful."

As the bus was ablaze, Jerrod tweeted, "Wow! 1st @RandyHouser, then @LeeBrice & now me," along with a photo of himself with Jon and Lee, standing in front of the fire. View the picture here, but be warned that the guys, understandably a little riled up, are waving to the camera with just their middle fingers.

In January, after a nine-hour drive to Mesa, Ariz., Lee's bus had a similar fate. The singer-songwriter had been asleep in his bunk when it started. "They were like, 'Bus is on fire! We're not kidding,'" he recalls. "So we had to run off and within a couple of minutes it was in flames. The whole back of the lounge was apparently burned through."

Almost a year ago, Randy Houser -- who was supposed to be with Jerrod in Chattanooga last night but stayed in Nashville to be there for the birth of his first child -- was in route to Isle of the Palms, S.C., when he lost all of his clothes and equipment to a bus fire.

While the cause of Jerrod's tour bus fire is still unknown, his instruments and guests are thankfully all OK. "To be honest, thank the good Lord that @LeeBrice was here tonite or I'd be Freddy Krueger," Jerrod tweeted early this morning.

See The Boot's 'A Day in the Life' of Jerrod Niemann

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