The moment has taken the internet by storm, with dozens of videos posted on social media platforms, garnering thousands of views: ‘Oscar From Chicago’, a fan in the audience, is dragged on stage during The Killers’ Lollapalooza drumming in front of thousands of fans.
The band’s lead singer Brandon Flowers noticed a sign in the crowd in Grant Park just before their hit song “For Reasons Unknown”.
The sign read “Can I Drum? It’s Only Natural”, a pun on another popular Killers song.
With some convincing, Flowers invited fans on stage to drum and introduced him as “Oscar from Chicago.”
NBC Chicago caught up with the lucky fan, 20-year-old Oscar Reza Bautista, on Monday.
“I had seen people playing drums with them before, and I was like, ‘I want to be one of them,”’ Reza Bautista said. “Brandon starts looking at my sign and points to it, and everything starts shaking.”
Reza Bautista is not actually from Chicago. He is a Tijuana, Mexico, native and attends Macalester College in Minnesota where he is studying computer science and cognitive science.
He is not usually a drummer and considers himself a pianist. However, he practiced drums for months at school in case his dream with the band came true.
“I’ve been practicing this song for months and listening to the studio album,” he said. “I could never imagine myself on a stage like that… I’m sitting on the stool, stomping on the pedals, and I’m like, ‘OK, this is a good drum set.’
Reza Bautista was a hit. His drum performance had the entire audience chanting “Oscar! Oscar! Oscar!”
“I’m just so lucky to have that kind of support from the crowd and the band,” he told NBC Chicago. “I’m very excited to be a part of a little bit of Lollapalooza and Chicago’s moment.”