A St. John’s man had the opportunity of a lifetime when he took to the stage at last night’s Killers concert on the closing night of the Churchill Park Music Festival.
Steve Brown says he’s only ever played drums in his basement, so getting behind Ronnie Vannucci’s kit was a dream come true.
He saw The Killers in 2018 and learned at that time that the band sometimes invites drummers up on stage to perform during the song “For Reasons Unknown.”
Finally! pic.twitter.com/4qynk9Uj0c
— The Killers (@thekillers) July 30, 2025
He says it was on his mind when he bought tickets for the Churchill Park performance, and had been practicing the song.
He told VOCM Open Line guest host Anthony Germain his partner Natasha made a sign, they camped out by the rail, and the band saw the sign and picked him out of the crowd.
“I ran up around behind the stage…and Ronnie handed me the sticks, and I sat down, and the rest was a blur, I felt like it was about 30 seconds, it was pretty quick.”
He says it was his first time playing on an acoustic kit and his mind was racing.
“I have an electric kit at home,” says Brown, “so my brain was trying to figure out ‘okay this tom is in a different place than my tom is, I’ve got to try to hit this tom instead of where my hand would normally go.'”
“I practiced it for two weeks but all that just kind of left my brain immediately and I just had to try to let muscle memory do its thing and hope that I was playing the right part at the right time which I knew I wasn’t at a couple of points, but oh well” he laughs.
