Copyright Parade
Vincent Mason is grateful for many things — a new album, an opening slot on Morgan Wallen’s upcoming tour, and finally being able to ride on a bus instead of a tour van, but most of all, he’s just happy to be alive. The country singer/songwriter, 25, has been a road warrior throughout his career, having played shows across the country, so it’s inevitable that time on the road hasn’t always been easy. On a recent episode of the Bobbycast, Mason detailed not one, but two instances where he almost lost his life while traveling to one of his shows in a tour van. At the time, Mason wasn’t a big enough artist to be able to travel by bus, so he and his crew had to trade shifts. During a drive to McFarland, Kansas, Mason says he and his band nearly lost their lives when the tire fell off the vehicle they had rented out while traveling at 70 mph. Luckily, the group wasn’t in the city, as the tire, which went 40 yards in the air, didn’t injure anyone. “We had a month-long stretch, where God was definitely laughing and testing us for sure,” Mason told host Bobby Bones before describing the terrifying moment. “….We were driving 70 mph. I’m half asleep. It’s the middle of the day, and we fall.” The Tire Had Detached From the Vehicle It turns out the tire had detached from the axle, causing a sudden drop in the vehicle and loss of wheel control. “The axis is sparking on the highway. I saw the tire….and then we all lost sight of the tire. It was 40 yards in the air, going 70 mph, just flying into somebody’s ranch. The axis is just sparking down the road, and we’re just saying, ‘Hit the brakes. Hit the brakes.’” The Brakes Also Went Out Mason went on to say that the drummer, who was driving the van, told him, “‘There’s no brakes.’ We’re like, ‘What?’ He’s like, ‘The brakes are out.’ So we just skidded 100 yards to the side of the road in McFarland, Kansas.” Everything Unfolded on the Hottest Day of the Year As luck would have it, a good, unnamed Samaritan who passed by the van offered help and assisted the band in moving everything from their vehicle to his. “He turned around in his little truck and got us. We took 3 or 4 trips from the van, and everyone told us, they were like, ‘You know this is the hottest day of the year.’ We were like, ‘Great.’ You can’t sit in the van on the shoulder because someone might hit you. So we’re all standing in the tall grass on the side of the road at 101 degrees Fahrenheit, and everyone is getting sunburn,” Mason shared. On Another Occasion, the Band Hit a Bear As if that moment wasn’t scary enough, Mason also explained a time when he and his crew “hit a black bear on the way to Upstate New York.” “I remember we were listening to ‘Talkin’ Tennessee’ by Morgan Wallen, and the trees are like 15ft wide, bugs are [huge]. I remember being like, ‘Watch out for deer,’” Mason shared. “I was looking to the left expecting them to go out that way…and then from the right, you see a bear in full sprint…it just ran across the front of the van, jumped out, and we caught the back of it.” “A hawk also flew in front of the van, into the driver’s face,” Mason added of that same evening. These days, Mason can rest easy as he and his bandmates now work with a CDL-licensed driver for their trips, making their road ventures much safer.
