Louisiana Musician Reveals ‘Life-Changing Hot Air Moment’

(Lafayette, LA) If there is one thing that almost everyone who lives in Lafayette, Scott, Broussard, Youngsville, or anywhere within shouting distance of I-10 can understand, it’s hot air. We seem to have a lot of it around these parts during the summer months, and there is even more when the Louisiana Legislature is in session.

But hot air, in a controlled sense, is a key component to a story that was shared with us by a Lafayette musician. It involved a life-changing balloon flight that took place more than a thousand miles away from Louisiana.

What Is It Like to Fly in a Hot Air Balloon?

If you’ve ever experienced a “lighter than air” flight in a wicker basket beneath a brightly colored bag of hot air. In that case, you can appreciate the complete serenity of the moment and the complete insanity of what is physically happening before your eyes.

It’s like watching someone play a musical instrument. In the chaos of flying fingers on a keyboard or the neck of a guitar, there is a certain calm that is created as the notes and the chords come together to bring life to what the performer has imagined.

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It was during the chaos and confusion of a hot air balloon flight that almost wasn’t Lafayette musician Jill Butler found comfort and serenity in a moment that truly defies belief.

Jill Butler is a Jazz and Blues pianist and vocalist who has graced stages across South Louisiana, the Gulf South, the Midwest, the Eastern Seaboard, and even international destinations such as London, Amsterdam, Singapore, and Bangkok.

Her current release, Joyride, has produced six singles that have all earned Top 40 airplay on the smooth jazz formatted radio stations around the globe. Joyride also earned Grammy consideration back in 2024.

It was during the creative process of writing material for the Joyride Album that Butler experienced what she can only define as a “sign” concerning her decision to leave the lucrative world of corporate banking for the uncertain income of a “gigging musician”.

Louisiana Jazz Musician Recounts Life-Changing Hot Air Balloon Experience

Butler set the scene for the video you’re about to see below this way.

It takes place in August of 2022, near the Badlands of South Dakota, of all places. Jill was on a solo road trip seeking inspiration for the album that would become Joyride.

So, as part of the creative process, Jill found herself 1,200 miles away from home and about to climb into the gondola of a hot air balloon. But there is so much more to this story than a balloon ride.

Butler, who has chosen to focus on life and living after having overcome a significant medical diagnosis in 2019, has always chosen the first week of August to “do something brave”. That act serves as a reminder that fear should not be an obstacle in pursuing one’s passion. For Butler, that passion is music.

And the fear? Well, that’s a highly developed fear of heights. One that dangling beneath a hot air balloon would certainly foster if allowed to grow.

To make matters worse, on that particular August morning near Custer, South Dakota, the weather was not conducive for hot air balloon flights. In fact, the pilots were contemplating cancelling the flights altogether, but fortunately, there was an unexpected break in the weather, and the pilots took advantage of the opportunity, but with a caveat.

The caveat was that the flight would not be along the normal flight path, as the seasonal summertime breezes usually blow. Instead, the flight path would be over a different terrain. In an area very near the Badlands, a place held in high spiritual esteem by the Lakota Nation of Native Americans.

Butler believes the “spiritual” significance of the location played a part in what unfolded as the balloon became airborne. As you might imagine, for someone with a fear of heights, flying in their first-ever hot air balloon ride, there was a lot of “introspection” going on.

It was during that moment of self-reflection that Butler says she simply asked in her heart if what she was doing had her on the right path in life. Had she chosen wisely to choose music over a more stable career. It was in that moment she asked, “Can you show me what I am supposed to see?”

Here is the video of what happened over South Dakota on that August morning.

If you didn’t catch it, the “moment” happens at 1:32 in the video above. If you want to experience the balloon ride, you can watch from the beginning. It truly defies explanation.

How could it be that so many unrelated variables came together at precisely the right time and the right way for this “vision” to occur?

We have a woman 1,200 miles away from her home in a place where no one knows her name or who she is. She climbs into a balloon for a flight that was almost cancelled, but at the last minute was rerouted. She asks for a sign and then looks down at the ground at the precise moment to see “her sign,” not "written on” the rocks, but “written in” the rocks below.

As we noted at the top of this narrative, there seems to be a spiritual conduit between our physical being and our souls, and that pipeline for many is music. For Lafayette’s Jill Butler, there certainly is an unbreakable bond between what is said out loud and what is left unspoken.

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If you’d like to experience the music inspired by this journey and hear some of Jill’s other original compositions. In that case, you are invited to a very special one-night-only performance next month.

Butler, along with the eight-piece version of her ensemble Joyride, is scheduled for a performance in Lafayette on July 11th as part of the Acadiana Center for the Arts NXT Series. Tickets for the series and Butler’s show on July 11th are available through the ACA website, here.