No Devotion member Jamie Oliver escapes lion attack

No Devotion’s Jamie Oliver has revealed he narrowly missed an attack by a mountain lion last weekend (May 31).

The ex-Lostprophets member and keyboard player for No Devotion, which features the former members of Lostprophets alongside frontman Geoff Rickley, took to Instagram to describe the encounter.

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Posting a photograph of a lion to Instagram – which he explained was not a photograph of the lion that approached him, Oliver said:

“I was meditating counting my breath when I noticed a rustling sound over my left shoulder. I turned to look expecting to see a rabbit but out of the corner of my eye was a much larger mammal. I thought to myself “that’s a brave coyote”. As I fully turned around to view the creature I realized what it was.”

Explaining that his decision to not wear headphones that day “probably saved my life,” he described his escape.

“Jumping out of the thicket onto 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.”

“I faced the creature and got as big as I could. I put my Hatebreed voice to work and stood my ground. It hesitated.”

“As quickly as possible I dropped to grab a large stick and swung it around violently. The lion came at me as I bent down but halted again as I swung the stick. I snapped the end of the brittle stick which formed a sharp point, I felt enabled and a little more confident with a weapon.”

“We kept a distance of about 30 feet and I decided to fight back with rocks.”

No Devotion plan to release their debut album later in 2015. The band performed a short tour of the UK at the start of the year, also opening for former My Chemical Romance frontman Gerard Way in Birmingham, Southampton and London in January.

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*this photo is not my own "I Tawt I Taw a Puddy Tat" I did, I did, only the one I saw was a pretty heafty sized mountain Lion. I'd like to start this by mentioning how many fortunate factors were in my favor to enable me to the escape and be writing this. The first was that I'd decided not to wear headphones. This one thing alone probably saved my life. Shortly after taking the previous misty trail photograph I ascended into the clouds where visibility was down to about 30ft. I was meditating counting my breath when I noticed a rustling sound over my left shoulder. I turned to look expecting to see a rabbit but out of the corner of my eye was a much larger mammal. I thought to myself "that's a brave coyote". As I fully turned around to view the creature I realized what it was. Jumping out of the thicket onto 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 "aww beautiful cat like the ones in the zoo" swiftly followed by a daunting realization of the danger I was in. I knew a little about what to do but couldn't remember all. I faced the creature and got as big as I could. I put my hatebreed voice to work and stood my ground. It hesitated. This seemed to be working. I backed up slowly darting looks, scanning my surroundings for a weapon. The second fortunate factor was that the floor was littered with decent size sticks and hand sized rocks. As quickly as possible I dropped to grab a large stick and swung it around violently. The lion came at me as I bent down but halted again as I swung the stick. I snapped the end of the brittle stick which formed a sharp point, I felt enabled and a little more confident with a weapon. Made the mistake of trying for the offensive but the cat just echoed my movements. We kept a distance of about 30 feet and I decided to fight back with rocks. The third fortunate thing was that my adrenaline allowed for a good accurate throw, and most rocks came within inches of the cat. At first it seemed confused but each rock bought me a few feet……..

A post shared by Richard J Oliver (@richardjoliver) on May 31, 2015 at 2:58pm PDT

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Left at 4am and drove 50 miles to climb this mountain to watch the sun rise over the ocean……ah well, into the abyss I continue.

A post shared by Richard J Oliver (@richardjoliver) on May 31, 2015 at 6:32am PDT

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