The ex-Lostprophets member was meditating in the mountains near his Los Angeles home
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.
