“The Voice” winner Jason “Sundance” Head says he’s thankful to be alive after accidentally shooting himself in the stomach on his East Texas ranch.
The Season 11 winner wounded himself Friday while hunting solo in the woods, his agent Trey Newman said in a statement. Head received one bullet in the stomach early that evening and was airlifted to a hospital in Tyler, Texas, about 100 miles east of Dallas and about a three-hour drive from his rural Texas ranch.
Head’s agent told the Associated Press that no vital organs were hit and said the singer did not require surgery. He confirmed that Head was released later Friday. Newman did not immediately respond Monday to The Times’ requests for comment.
In an update posted on Head’s verified Facebook account, his wife Misty said that her husband was shot after reaching into his vehicle to grab his .22 caliber pistol, but the gun came out of its holster and “hit the exterior of the Jeep just right and went off.”
“Sundance said it happened so fast and he could see the bullet dislodging,” she wrote in the post. “I thought he called 911 he didn’t- he put his hands in pocket for phone immediately after getting hit but phone wasn’t there just filled with blood so he took off down the driveway out to the main road to flag a car down for help. 10 cars later someone turned around to help and called 911.”
In his own update on Sunday, the singer thanked the “couple of gentlemen” who stopped to help him, as well as “the good Lord above,” first responders and a trauma team affiliated with the University of Texas at Tyler.
“I was sure that I was going to die. It was one of the craziest things that ever happened to me,” he said in a Facebook video. “I am alive. I’m in a lot of pain. I was shot accidentally in the stomach. I was alone. It was one of the craziest things that could’ve possibly happened. If we could relive this thing, and do it 999,000 more times, it wouldn’t happen.”
Head said that he would elaborate further in forthcoming “step by step” videos, but wanted to reassure his friends that he had survived.
“I am thankful to be alive. I have a lot of life left and that’s what I was telling these ladies and gentlemen that were trying to keep me alive,” he said, thanking the people on Route 84 who stopped on the highway to help him.
“Without you, man, I don’t think I was going to make it, man. I was bleeding out right there, didn’t have anyone to help me and you know I had about a dozen cars go by and see me and make eye contact and they didn’t stop, they just kept going. I was at the end of the rope,” he said.
He said he still has the bullet in him and isn’t yet sure what to expect next.
“All I know is that I didn’t die [Friday] and I have another opportunity to live and I feel like the Lord has blessed me just beyond — I can’t even comprehend really — giving me sobriety; allowing me to learn to love myself again; to find a spirit within me that I could be proud of and would like to share with everyone; and the opportunity to live and be able to talk about the things that I’ve been through in life through song. And that’s how I communicate and that’s the only thing I know how to do.”
In a separate post, Misty Head shared a photo of the damaged black tank top Head was wearing during the incident “so y’all can see how lucky he was,” she said.
“Any higher or lower would have been devastating,” she wrote, noting where the bullet went through the garment and into her husband.
Head was coached by country singer Blake Shelton on “The Voice” in 2016. Prior to that, he competed on “American Idol” in 2007 and made it to the semifinals of the Fox singing competition.