No Devotion’s Jamie Oliver says he is lucky to be alive after an encounter with a mountain lion while out jogging.
The keyboard player was running near his Los Angeles home when the creature approached him. He says he only escaped unharmed because he was not wearing headphones and there were sticks and rocks to hand with which he eventually scared the animal off.
On his Instagram account, which is dedicated mainly to his art work and using his full name Richard J Oliver, he says: “Jumping out of the thicket on to the trail about 25ft away the lion approached seeming disappointed I had heard it coming.
“It adopted a low profile as it moved toward me. Now the first thing that came to mind was, ‘Aw beautiful cat like the ones in the zoo,’ swiftly followed by a daunting realisation of the danger I was in.
“I put my Hatebreed voice to work and stood my ground. It hesitated. This seemed to be working.”
Swinging a large stick and throwing rocks near the approaching lion eventually allowed Oliver to escape unharmed.
He adds: “Fortunate factors were in my favour to enable me to escape and be writing this. The first was that I’d decided not to wear headphones. This one thing alone probably saved my life.”
No Devotion will play this year’s Reading and Leeds festivals.
