The Killers Stop Show to Make Sure 67-Year-Old Crowd Surfer Is Okay
The Killers paused a performance last week in Manchester, England, after bandleader Brandon Flowers spotted an older crowd surfer who had injured his head in the audience.
Video of the subsequent exchange between the musician and the concertgoer, called Billy by the singer, has now gone viral, as shown this week by Consequence and Stereogum.
Billy received chants in his name from the audience after Flowers returned to the stage to explain what had happened. In the British press the following day, the crowd surfer was identified only as 67-year-old "Billy the Crowd Surfer," although The Killers singer initially guessed he was just slightly older. (via Radio X)
Watch the video down toward the bottom of this post.
"Who dropped him?" Flowers asks the audience in fan-captured footage of the incident last Saturday (June 11). "Come on — is he okay? It's okay — oh, his head's bleeding a little bit. Let's just take care of him."
The musician then went from the stage down into the pit area to check on the injured crowd surfer. There, the two embraced. "Billy was trying to crowd surf," Flowers jovially reported back to the crowd. He looks like he's about 68 or 69."
Relaying the pair's brief exchange, Flowers adds, "Billy, what are you doing? You know what he said? 'I'm enjoying meself.'"
The Killers were in England on tour behind Pressure Machine, their 2021 studio album. The Las Vegas-based rock band first found fame in the mid-2000s with hit singles from their early albums such as Hot Fuss (2004) and Sam's Town (2006).
Artists are doing their best to keep crowds safe in light of tragedies such as Astroworld. During a couple of recent Slipknot shows, the Midwestern masked metal band also had to pause their performances to help out concertgoers.