For Julien Lesaffre, a dream came true on Sunday at the Rock Werchter festival site. Or rather: on stage. The young Frenchman was removed from the audience by the frontman of The Killers and then drummed with the band. “The view was phenomenal,” he says, beaming afterwards.
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Eline VandeGehuchte
Yesterday at 22:39–
Julien, 26, knew what he was getting into when he lifted a sign saying he can play the drums. “I knew that sometimes the band asks someone on stage when they want to start the song ‘Read my mind’,” he says. “So I started practicing at home two months ago.” The message caught the eye of frontman Brandon Flowers. “He already gave me a signal from the podium that he had seen me. But it was still exciting, we saw that there was another boy in the audience who had also put a sign in the air.”
Yet it was Julien who was removed from the audience by security shortly afterwards. What followed is surreal: the young guy drummed the entire song on the Main Stage, in front of a packed festival field. “The view was phenomenal.” Was he stressed? “Not at all, I had zero stress when I stepped on the podium. I just did it and it was delicious. But afterwards the release was great, I immediately started crying when I was with my friends. I was shocked.”
The singer had also noticed that Julien was playing the drums of The Killers with a T-shirt from the Red Hot Chili Peppers. He apologized with a smile to the Peppers, who closed the festival on Sunday evening. “Of course I’m a fan of both bands, but honestly? Just a little more from the Peppers. I even run the France fan website with two friends.”
It is not the first time that the frontman of The Killers invites someone on stage to play drums with the band. He already did it on his last pass at Werchter, although it was less successful then. The fan in question had less skill at the time than Flowers expected. Fortunately, Julien did well.
