At Reading Music Festival in 2023, a 16 year old drummer named Ozzie Graham from “just outside Bath” held up a sign and experienced the moment of a lifetime. Ozzie held up a sign adorned with lights that read, “Can I play DRUMS for Reasons Unknown?” The Killers’ lead singer Brandon Flowers invited him to come on stage and play drums for “Reasons Unknown”. He said, “Let the kid up. Here we go,”
As a Ozzie, wearing in a Brazilian national football team shirt, climbed onto the stage, another fan captured the magical moment on film. The video below was uploaded to YouTube by “Greg Dunbar”. The BBC also captured the magical moment, later sharing it on BBC Radio 1’s Instagram account. Overwhelmed by the experience, Ozzie commented on the post, “Absolutely insane, thank you to The Killers so much!”
For some years, The Killers have been inviting audience members on stage to play drums on For Reasons Unknown. Usually drummers who are game to play hold up posters requesting to play. Since the poster holders know which The Killers’ track an audience-member drummer will be invited to drum on, they know what song to practice, which mitigates against complete disasters. There is a Reddit question: “Why do the killers always let someone else be the drummer for For Reasons Unknown? The consensus seems to be “I think it happened at one or two gigs and then it just snowballed and everyone took their chance.”
The first reference to the practice that I can find is in an NME article from July 2018. During their headline slot at the Latitude Festival in Sussex, July 2018, Henry from Cambridge drummed on the song. Then François Ristorcelli played at Lollapalooza, Paris, on 22 July 2018.