The Red Clay Strays Say They ‘Almost Died’ After Their Private Jet Malfunctioned on the Way to the 2026 ACMs
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The Red Clay Strays had a rocky road getting to the 2026 ACM Awards.
The musicians said on the red carpet that they “almost died” while en route to the show after their private jet suffered technical difficulties.
On Sunday, May 17, the band was asked by Yahoo Entertainment what the “most country thing” they’d done that week was, and guitarist Zach Rishel was quick to answer.
“We almost died in that private jet. Part of our engine cowling flew off during takeoff,” he explained.
Bassist Andrew Bishop said the jet circled above Mobile, Ala. for about two hours in order to lose enough fuel to land again and get the band onto a different plane to Las Vegas.
Drummer John Hall then showed a photo of the broken engine, and emphasized that the issue happened “in the air.”
“It was terrifying,” Hall, 33, said.
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The Red Clay Strays won Group of the Year at the ACMs, and also performed “Demons in Your Choir.”
The ACMs incident is not the first time the band has had trouble in the skies. In October, they shared video of extreme turbulence on a flight taking them to a country music festival in Salt Lake City.
In the clip, which was shared to Instagram, the frightened band members held on tight as the plane shook due to extreme winds.
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At one point, Bishop played the Lynyrd Skynyrd song “That Smell” from his phone, quipping that if the plane was going to go down, “It’s gonna go down to Skynyrd.”
Lynyrd Skynyrd was famously involved in a 1977 plane crash in Mississippi that killed six people, including band members Ronnie Van Zant, Steve Gaines and Cassie Gaines.
“Apparently we hit an over 40 degree bank while trying to land in Salt Lake😬 Naturally as we thought the plane was going down, @good_time_andy thought it was a good time to play some Skynyrd,” the group captioned the post. “Seriously though, very thankful to our pilots @james_pruitt56 @pruittjlr45 for their quick-thinking and coolness under pressure. Y’all rock!”
