BBC music presenter Jools Holland has shared an astonishing story from his past, revealing how his own mother nearly killed him in a dramatic car explosion during the making of a television documentary.
The Near-Fatal Explosion
The incident occurred in 1985 while Holland was filming a Channel 4 documentary special titled Walking to New Orleans. The programme, which featured appearances from Robbie Coltrane and Paula Yates, saw the then-25-year-old musician driving around Louisiana in a 1970s seven-litre Oldsmobile Delta 98.
After spending weeks meeting musical legends including Fats Domino and The Neville Brothers, the production team decided to end the film by spectacularly blowing up the car Holland had been driving throughout the shoot.
Mother's Unexpected Role
What Holland didn't know was that the props guy, known as "Italian Joe", had recruited his mother June to trigger the explosion. "The main point about blowing the car up was, he made my Mum do it," Holland explained to the Mirror.
The musician, now 67, revealed the twisted logic behind this decision: "Because Joe had the idea that if it all went wrong, my Mum would get the blame and I wasn't going to sue my Mum, you know?"
Holland and his Squeeze bandmate, drummer Gilson Lavis, were instructed to walk towards the explosive-laden vehicle, having been told it would detonate when they reached a specific twig on the ground. However, they walked well past the marker with no explosion occurring.
Dangerous Aftermath
When the blast finally happened, both men were thrown off their feet by the force. Holland reflected that "another few footsteps, I think, it could've gone badly wrong."
He admitted to being less than impressed with the health and safety arrangements, describing Italian Joe as "a complete stoner" and "the last person you wanted to be around plugged gelignite and dynamite."
The two-hour special, Jools Holland's New Orleans Jukebox, airing on BBC4 this Sunday at 9.30pm, marks the 40th anniversary of the original road trip. It includes the full original documentary alongside new contributions from Holland reflecting on the making of the film.
Holland's mother had joined the 20-strong crew for the trip because she was a huge fan of New Orleans music and had "really wanted to come." Despite the near-disaster, Holland describes the experience as "one of the high points of his career" and remembers feeling "like a child in a toy shop."
