Nick Groff may have not been the center of attention during his time on the paranormal activity show Ghost Adventures, but his calmer nature made him the favorite founding member of the Ghost Adventures squad among the show’s fans.
When Groff announced that he would not be returning to the show in 2014, many fans were concerned that the show would never be the same without him.
However, fans who kept up with the squad’s social media pages weren’t shocked to find out what had happened.
As the show was reaching peak popularity, tensions between the stars were also rising.
Why Did Nick Groff Leave Ghost Adventures?
Nick Groff left Ghost Adventures because of the rising tension between him and the leader of the Ghost Adventures gang, Zak Bagans.
While nobody from Ghost Adventures has come out to give the exact reason for Groff’s departure from the hit paranormal show, it’s clear that Groff and Bagans didn’t see eye to eye on key features of the show.
Groff first joined Ghost Adventures to fill several roles, most of which were behind-the-scenes jobs such as executive producer, editor, and he even worked as a videographer.
He also worked as a writer and co-creator in the show’s early years.
It was Groff who helped give Ghost Adventures the distinct appeal that differentiated the show from other paranormal shows of the time.
While other paranormal shows felt like videos that random people made, Ghost Adventures had a more professional and cinematic feel.
However, Nick Groff often felt underappreciated and under-represented on the show.
Although he did a lot of the work, the show about three friends looking for evidence of paranormal activity felt more like a highlight reel for Zak Bagans with the other two members sprinkled in.
Since Groff didn’t find the type of role he had originally hoped for with Ghost Adventures, he decided to create his own show.
Groff decided to create the paranormal miniseries Ghost Stalkers.
For the miniseries’s promotional material, the advertisem*nts said that Groff was from the show Ghost Adventures.
This caused Zak Bagans to publicly comment about the problem he had with Groff using Ghost Adventures in his advertisem*nts.
In his Twitter posts, Bagans never directly addressed anyone.
However, he heavily implied that “someone” shouldn’t have used Ghost Adventures as part of their market pull.
That same “person” was also fired from the show and sullied the show’s name.
Does He Really Believe In The Paranormal?
Yes, Nick Groff truly believes in the ghosts that he is hunting, and he believes a few unexplainable events in his life were purely paranormal.
The first sign that made Groff believe in ghosts came when he had a near-death experience at the age of eight years old.
As a child, Groff and his sister, Dianna, spent a lot of time in the water together.
Each week, the pair would go to swimming practice and Groff would get out before his sister.
While waiting, his mother would take him outside to play and run around.
While his mother sat on the park bench with a book in hand, Groff found the biggest tree in the park to climb.
The old tree had plenty of branches for climbing, but there were many parts of the tree that were rotting away.
Groff had climbed 12 feet up into the tree and was on his way to climbing higher when he stepped on a rotting branch that couldn’t support his weight.
Young Groff fell into a rusted chain-link fence that cut him through to the bone.
The fence tore Groff’s bicep from his arm, causing it to dangle there.
Groff was moments away from death when he was carried back into the building where he would have his arm tied together with t-shirts while waiting for the ambulance to arrive.
Had he fallen even a little to the left or right, he would have severed his artery and bled to death almost immediately.
Without the help of those around him and his mother’s nursing experience, he would have died from blood loss.
Who Groff believes saved him from that moment is uncertain even to him, but he believes that his brush with death has brought him closer to whatever lies beyond death.
Moving On To Ghost Stalkers
Nick Groff had to make a lot of creative sacrifices while creating Ghost Adventures that he was satisfied with, so he began to work on his own paranormal miniseries.
The producers of Ghost Stalkers gave Groff the freedom he needed to create the type of show he envisioned.
For the show, Groff decided to keep doing his work behind the camera and enlisted the help of John E.L. Tenney and Chad Lindberg.
Lindberg is best known for his role as Jesse in The Fast and the Furious, the film that started the successful Fast & Furious movie franchise.
There were also special appearances from Johnny Houser, Lisa Kovanda, and David M. Rountree.
Once again, Groff would also be serving as a writer, editor, and camera operator.
Through the show, Groff sends Tenny and Lindberg to six famous locations that are supposedly haunted.
It’s up to Tenney and Lindberg to give the audience a view of what it is like in these sinister homes and buildings.
In the first episode, the ghost-hunting duo is sent to Whispers Estate in Mitchell, Indiana.
The estate was once home to a doctor who used the house as a hospital in the 1800s and had many patients die while in his basem*nt surgical room, some of which were children.
The second episode of Ghost Stalkers has Lindberg and Tenney searching the remains of Springfield State Hospital, an asylum that was known for the gruesome treatment of its patients.
So many patients died from the abuse they endured at that hospital that the whole town is believed to be haunted.
Another episode has sent the celebrity ghost hunters to Wheatlands Plantation, a place with a long and dark past.
Between the abused slaves and the people who died in its fields during the war, there are plenty of potential ghosts there.
Coming Back With Paranormal Lockdown
From 2016 to 2018, Nick Groff starred in his own paranormal investigation show called Paranormal Lockdown.
Groff and his co-host, Katrina Weidman, stayed in the most haunted locations throughout the United States for 72 hours to see what kind of activity they could find.
The first location that Nick Groff and Katrina Weidman stayed at was Sweet Springs Resort, which is located in a town that was once rumored to have water that could cure any disease in the 1800s.
Sweet Springs Resort was designed by Thomas Jefferson right before his death in 1826.
Although it started as a hotel, the building would later be turned into a hospital, a retirement home, and even an asylum in its later years.
Over the course of the building’s existence, many people lost their lives while staying there.
Weidman and Goff also went to Bobby Mackey’s Music World during the 38-episode series.
Although the building now serves as a nightclub, its cursed history can still be felt by those who are brave enough to visit.
The building was originally a slaughterhouse that was owned by Satanists who would use the basem*nt to perform sacrifices with their group in the late 1800.
In 1896, a young woman named Pearl Bryan was found headless in a field next to the slaughterhouse.
She had been murdered by her boyfriend and his friend after they botched an abortion.
To cover their tracks, the men surgically removed her head from her body.
However, the police were still able to identify her by her shoes.
While waiting at the gallows, one of her murderers promised to haunt the area for an eternity.
The building and surrounding area would experience generations of murder and bloodshed, with many blaming the murders on Headless Pearl Bryan.
Jumping From Television To Podcasts
Over the past couple of years, the popularity of podcasts has reached new heights and allowed hosts to create ongoing series about the topics that may never see their time on television or in movies.
Nick Groff serves as an executive producer for the paranormal podcast Sounds Scary.
Groff’s history in media production and his passion for the paranormal has allowed him to be the perfect producer for the podcast and share more stories about his life as a paranormal investigator.
Each episode speaks with people around Hollywood about their frightening, unexplainable experiences.
During its run, the show has had guest stars such as Kevin Smith, James Duval, John McPhail, Ian Honeyman, and JW Ocker.
Although the topics up for discussion are normally about the paranormal, they will occasionally talk about other horror-related topics like classic horror films and new books that have come out.
Releasing His Own Music
With Ghost Adventures finding massive success, Nick Groff wanted to take advantage of his new platform to show his audience everything that he was interested in.
In 2012, he released two albums: Spiritual War: Good vs Evil and Other Side.
Sadly, Groff has found that his audience isn’t as interested in his musical career and much prefer his work as a host, producer, writer, and director.
On average, Groff has about 58 monthly listeners and has a total of 32 songs.
While his music career may have never gotten off of the ground, Groff has proven why it’s important to diversify the types of projects you work on.
Not every project is going to be a winner, but they all will give you a clearer image of what your audience wants or could want in the future.
Becoming An Author
Nick Groff is no stranger to questions about his kickstarted career and his relationship with the paranormal.
In 2012, Groff decided to publish a book called Chasing Spirits: The Building of the “Ghost Adventures” Crew with the help of author Jeff Belanger.
In the book, Groff takes the reader through his most dangerous experiences and the many aspects of his life that contributed to his relationship with the paranormal.
From his childhood home in Salem to his preparation process, Groff tells the readers everything they want to know.
Groff talks about the importance of preparing yourself properly, both mentally and professionally.
Before going to any location, Groff must learn all there is to know about the building, the surrounding area, and the ghost that is being investigated.
In Chasing Spirits, Groff also goes on to describe his first direct contact with a ghost.
As soon as young Groff walked into his empty house after his school day, there was something that felt off about his family’s new home.
His parents were away at work and his sister was attending after-school programs, but Groff didn’t feel like the only one in the house.
He walked slowly into the house when he saw a nearly black figure standing at the glass door of his dining room.
The mysterious entity had no features like a face or even hair and simply stood there.
Without thinking, Groff took off running for his life to his neighbor’s house to get away from the figure that exuded such menacing energy.
Although his parents never shared the same interest in the paranormal as Nick Groff, his grandmother was always eager to talk to him about what she knew.
Groff’s grandmother would often recount the Betty and Barney Hill UFO abduction and other ghost stories she had experienced.
Directing His Own Movies
In the same year as the original Ghost Adventures documentary, Nick Groff directed the action-drama movie Malevolence alongside fellow director Michael A Martinez.
The movie starred a slew of local actors and wasn’t a large production.
Malevolence was about a detective who is hunting down a pair of wanted men, one of whom has mental health problems that cause him to do horrible things to those around him.
With the help of two psychologists, the detective follows the trail of a man who isn’t afraid to show the worst side of human nature.
Nick Groff also directed multiple television specials about many different hauntings.
These specials include Tarot Date with Ken Boggle, Winchester: A Ghost Finders Special, Chad Lindberg’s Bad*** Celebrity Ghost Hunt, and The Occult Collector.
With all these experiences in the entertainment industry, Nick Groff has decided to create his own horror film that is currently in development.
The historical crime movie will be called Dead Remains and stars Abbey Hafer, Mia Pellegrino, Josiah Schneider, and Alex D. Jennings.
Although no new information has come out about the upcoming movie, Groff’s fans eagerly await to see what their favorite paranormal investigator is up to.
With all the inspiration Groff has gathered from the real-life crimes of those whose homes he’s entered as a ghost adventurer, the movie is sure to be bone-chilling.
Nick Groff Is More Than A Ghost Hunter
Nick Groff may no longer be a member of the Ghost Adventures crew, but he still keeps his love of the supernatural at the center of what he does.
A lifelong passion instilled in him from his grandmother and near-death experiences has led Groff to find massive success in the entertainment industry.
Groff proved that Ghost Adventures was only the opening chapter of his career as a paranormal investigator and figurehead in the paranormal entertainment industry.
Never has Groff allowed the disbelief of others to deter him from creating the kind of content that he wants to see in the world.
Although the fans of the original Ghost Adventures crew wish that Nick Groff and Zak Bagans could have worked out their creative differences, both men saw massive success by separating and putting their focus into their own projects.
For those fans who were particularly fond of Nick Groff, the split from Ghost Adventures allowed Groff to tailor shows to his liking and create content that better suited his viewers.
Fans of Ghost Adventures who have complained about Bagans’s tendency to oversell a situation can choose to watch shows such as Paranormal Lockdown and Ghost Stalkers.
Groff even has an ongoing series called Death Walker, where he attempts to sleuth out the answers to what happened to those who haunt places all over the United States.
Nick Groff has never let the history of haunted locations go unnoticed and hopes to show the world a new side to paranormal investigation.
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