I got a call from Ethan at 12 AM on September 5th. I said into the phone, “well this can’t be good.”
Ethan replied with a sigh, “well, no…”
He then explains that the Jam Van, which was scheduled to be at AMERICANAFEST on September 10th, had lost all of its power while going 60 MPH on I-40 East just outside of Williams, Arizona. This was jarring, but as Ethan took a breath after recanting the electrical issues, I was thinking just that, maybe some faulty wire, something small… then he picked back up…
“Yeah, and so the lights were all out and it was pitch black, and all of a sudden we just, we hit a tree…”
I did not sleep well that night. Suda said he prayed on it, and maybe that worked, because after Ethan and Kevin stayed up all night waiting on a tow truck crew to chainsaw The Van off of the mangled tree and drop them at a hotel, a local mobile mechanic figured out the issue. There’s apparently a battery kill switch under the van in a storage compartment. That compartment got packed too thick, and a bag hit the switch, and luckily Ethan and Kevin are still here to tell the tale. Kevin pees himself a little every time he talks about seeing that tree coming for the windshield (disclaimer: the windshield is not ok)…
Anyways, they made it to Nashville two days later. Here’s our first session from AMERICANAFEST to prove it.
