Last year was shaping up to be great for Michigander. The Michigan born, Nashville-based artist was set to release an EP It Will Never Be The Same, he’d booked his first, major headlining tour and was about to mark a career milestone with the song “Stay Out of It” entering a top ten radio chart.
But a pair of life-changing accidents altered the course of his career and revealed an unexpected source of support.
The first incident happened a long way from Michigan and Nashville. Last Fall Michigander aka Jason Singer was filming a video in a remote area outside of Los Angeles for the song “Superglue” and then this happened…
While Singer did his best to make light of a truly scary situation, that little slip proved costly forcing him to make the difficult decision to postpone the EP and the tour.
“At the moment, I was really scared,” Singer recalls. “Because I was like ‘There’s a lot of momentum right now. And somehow we made it through a pandemic with momentum so hopefully we can do that again.’ But I wasn’t sure of it.”
The long recovery and the postponements were bad, but things were about to get much worse. In mid-October Singer received a terrifying call. His wife Brittany was hit by a truck while walking in Germantown. A stranger found her phone.
“He said ‘Hey I’m here with your wife,” Singer remembers. “She’s being taken to the hospital. I have no idea if she’s ok.’”
But at the time Singer was still stuck. He was recovering from the leg injury, couldn’t drive and had to wait for a ride to the hospital
“And I was just scooting around our house with a backup stuffing stuff in,” Singer says. “Seeing our wedding photo and not knowing if she was alive or not for like an hour.”
Singer eventually made it to his wife who was responsive but couldn’t feel her legs. She had suffered a traumatic brain injury.
“Whatever we know now there’s no major life-altering repercussions,” Singer reports. “Still a long road to recovery but we’re doing it.”
As anyone who has spent time with Singer can attest, he’s funny, genial and relentlessly positive. He uses comedy to navigate the world but last year’s accidents broke that compass.
“Things were so bad that I was having dizziness and my ears were making noises and my chest was hurting and I had sleep paralysis and anxiety,” Singer lists. “So I had all that stuff and neither of us had insurance so we’re like ‘How do we do this?’ We had to talk to lawyers and all this stuff and it’s piled on at the same time I’m expected to be on social media and promoting my band. It didn’t work. I just couldn’t do it.”
After a dormant period, spiked with sporadic messages, Singer eventually reengaged – posting home performances and sharing music memories on social media.
He also released a Christmas record with some friends and Singer says it was that community, in his newly adopted city of Nashville who stepped up in a surprising way.
“People would just like just send stuff to the house,” Singer happily shares. “Some of my favorite bands checking in on me, who I didn’t even know knew who I was. And anywhere I’d go they’d be like ‘Are you that guy?’ And I was like ‘Yeah.’ And (they’d ask) ‘How’s your wife? And how are you?’ And I was like ‘Terrible! But thanks for asking.’ We’re really lucky.”
Now things are back on track. The EP is out this week. The tour is reset and “Superglue” is climbing the charts. Singer says that song was originally written in 2020 about a crush (and it was the background for that California calamity) but now it has new meaning.
“To me it’s about my life in the music industry and chasing the dreams of being a musician,” Singer states. “It’s that age old question ‘Am I doing it right?’ Or to quote John Mayer ‘Am I living it right?’ And I’ve had those moments so often. And usually those are the moments where I’m like ‘I’m done. I give up. This is it.’ And I just completely let go of it. And those are the moments when things get awesome.”