Firefly Music Festival dream come true: West Chester fan plays drums with The Killers

Never before has a 69-cent investment paid off so well for West Chester's Brian Bagosy.

Before entering The Woodlands to see The Killers at Firefly Music Festival on Saturday, Bagosy made a pit stop — the first step in his plan to get on stage with his favorite band.

The 24-year-old drummer popped into a store to buy a piece of poster board, knowing that during the last year Killers singer Brandon Flowers has been bringing fans on stage to perform with the band.

With a homemade sign that read "Me = Drums = Reasons," which referenced the band's 2006 song "For Reasons Unknown," Flowers plucked Bagosy out of a crowd filled with tens of thousands of fans and put him behind the drum kit Saturday night in Dover.

Before he started, Bagosy stood behind the elevated kit and made sure to scan the crowd for a couple of seconds, taking in the incredible real life "Rock Band" moment he was experiencing.

"It was just a sea of people and the back was pitch black so I couldn't even see where it ended," says Bagosy, who regularly performs with the Pennsylvania-based Juliana Danese Band. "It really looked amazing from up there."

For six minutes, Bagosy was the center of attention as The Killers rocked Firefly for a record-breaking third headlining set.

"We've made a habit of allowing this," Flowers said on stage as he watched Bagosy fight his way past security after being selected.

Before the West Chester University graduate was allowed to grab the drumsticks, Flowers had a warning, reminding him that he was about to attempt to perform at a large-scale music festival.

"There's a lot of people here. Are you ready? You practiced?" Flowers asked before getting the answers he wanted. "OK, let him up. This is Brian from West Chester, Pennsylvania, everybody. OK, let's see what you got, playa."

The band behind hits such as "Mr. Brightside," "When We Were Young" and "Somebody Told Me" then powered through the song with Bagosy keeping up with the chart-topping Las Vegas pop/rock act.

"Not too shabby, not too shabby," Flowers said afterward as the crowd chanted, "Bri-an! Br-ian! Bri-an!"

As they hugged at center stage, Bagosy says Flowers told him he did a "great job."

It was Bagosy's sixth time seeing the band in recent years, including their visit to the Wells Fargo Center in Philadelphia earlier this year — a show where Flowers pulled a fan on stage, helping give Bagosy his Firefly idea.

Once on stage, the moment was better than he could have imagined. He was in a groove, the band was rolling and he could hear the crowd roaring through his drum fills. 

"When I started to hear the crowd, that's why I did so many more fills," he says, referring to the end of the song where he stretches things out, squeezing every moment out his once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. "Plus, I had plenty of adrenaline."

Bagosy is still a little surprised that the band took a chance on him at a 60,000-plus person festival during their headlining set.

An awful drummer would have led to an awkward moment and possibly more than a few thousand boos. After all, Eminem fans were also in the crowd, saving their spots for the hip-hop headliner, who followed The Killers on the same stage that night.

"It was a huge risk and it really shows how great of a live band they are," Bagosy says. "They didn't know if I could play or how good I could play."

Days later, Bagosy is still reliving his magical moment, collecting every video and image he can find of himself with the band, even snagging a few photos from The Killers' own photographer, Rob Loud.

Bagosy's friend, Paul Schuster, helped make the sign and videotaped the entire performance — a movie Bagosy has watched several times. In fact, that's part of his process. He regularly videotapes himself practicing in his basement in search of areas to improve.

"So now I have the best video to watch for the rest of my life," says Bagosy, who already has plans to attend Firefly next year. "That night I slept like three hours and it hasn't been much better since."

Contact Ryan Cormier of The News Journal at rcormier@delawareonline.com or (302) 324-2863. Follow him on Facebook (@ryancormier), Twitter (@ryancormier) and Instagram (@ryancormier).

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