Grammy-winning singer-songwriter Ray LaMontagne, 53, collapsed onstage while performing “Jolene” at Nashville’s Ryman Auditorium on Saturday, September 5, 2026, cutting the concert short. According to his team, emergency medical workers in the city treated him for dehydration brought on by heat and he was doing fine; the following night he was performing as planned in Louisville, Kentucky.
Video shot by fans late in the set shows LaMontagne strumming his guitar and singing the track from his 2004 debut — his own song, not the Dolly Parton standard of the same name — then letting out a grunt and dropping backward onto the stage floor. Gasps sweep through the room. Two members of his team hurried over to him, and he was assisted off. The concert ended before the planned set was finished.
Footage of the incident circulated fast once the show ended, uploaded to TikTok by a concertgoer and passed around on Instagram.
A shakier moment had come earlier in the night. LaMontagne stopped twice during “Hannah,” appearing to lose his place, and apologized to the crowd before carrying on. He stepped offstage briefly a short time later, then returned and began “Jolene.” Both moments are visible in audience recordings.
What LaMontagne’s Team Said
After the concert, LaMontagne’s management posted an update to his Instagram Story. “Thank you to everyone who came out to tonight’s show at the Ryman,” it read. “Ray is in good hands with the local EMS and is being treated for heat related dehydration, he is doing well now and is grateful for everyone’s understanding.”
The same message said the singer “is looking forward to being onstage in Louisville tomorrow night.”
A Warm Room in a Historic Hall
Multiple concertgoers posted online afterward that the room had seemed hotter than normal. The Ryman is an indoor historic venue, and the Saturday date was the second of the two shows LaMontagne played there, on September 4 and 5, part of an anniversary tour that had already been pushed back once.
The heat-related dehydration his management pointed to remains the only cause publicly attached to the collapse. As of September 9, the account had not been verified by any independent medical source, the crowd videos supplied no medical explanation of their own, and nothing more about his health had been made public. Neither his age nor the fan video nor his team’s mention of dehydration provides grounds to infer any other medical condition.
Back Onstage in Louisville
After the Nashville show, the Louisville date remained on the itinerary, and LaMontagne played it, appearing at the Louisville Palace in Kentucky on Sunday, September 6. From the stage, he said nothing about the collapse.
The Trouble 20th Anniversary Tour had opened on August 23 at Red Butte Garden Amphitheater in Salt Lake City. On the run, LaMontagne is performing his debut album, “Trouble,” in full, alongside material drawn from across his catalog. Canadian act The Weather Station is serving as the support.
The Album Behind the Anniversary Run
“Trouble,” released in 2004, reached its U.K. peak of No. 5 almost two years after it arrived. LaMontagne has released nine studio albums in all; the most recent, “Long Way Home,” came out in August 2024.
He won the Grammy Award for Best Contemporary Folk Album in 2011 for his fourth album, 2010’s “God Willin’ & the Creek Don’t Rise.”
LaMontagne announced the anniversary trek in March 2025, telling fans he would be “playing the album top to tail for the first time since it was released.” He added on Instagram, “I hope you will come out and join me and my friends and help us celebrate this moment in time,” and said it wouldn’t be the same without them.
The dates were originally plotted for 2025. LaMontagne announced that he was pushing the tour into 2026 after an unexpected oral surgery and a lengthy recovery. No link has been reported between that procedure and what happened in Nashville.
He has played twice more since. LaMontagne performed a full set at the Crouse-Hinds Concert Theater in Syracuse, New York, on Tuesday, September 8, running to a four-song encore with no reported difficulty, and he is booked in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, on Wednesday, September 9. Philadelphia follows on September 12 and Detroit on September 20. He then plays two nights in Boston, on September 25 and 26, at the open-air Leader Bank Pavilion, and two more in Portland, Maine, on September 28 and 29. The run closes with three concerts at New York City’s Beacon Theatre on October 1, 2 and 3.
