Las Vegas rockers, The Killers, are currently on tour in Europe in support of their new album, “Pressure Machine”. On June 12th, the band was in Manchester UK performing at Emirates Old Trafford in front of a sold out crowd of 50,000.

Part of that crowd included 67-year-old Doug James and his son Barry. About half way thru the set, swept up in the moment, Doug decided to try his hand at crowd surfing. In fact, Doug was inspired by a fellow Killers fan who was in a wheel chair and with help of the audience around her, surfed the crowd in her chair (It’s a glorious sight to see, I’ve witnessed it a few times at Louder Than Life).

Doug said to some guys around him,  “Should we crowd surf?’” and they lifted him up and off he went. He described how he was “swimming” on top of the crowd before he landed on his head: “Sadly I missed the beach and I hit a rock.”

Well, that fall caught the attention of The Killers frontman, Brandon Flowers, who stopped the show to check on Doug. Flowers left the stage and came down into the photo pit just as Doug was being passed over the barricade. Flowers asked Doug if he was ok, and hugged him. Doug simply told Flowers “I’m enjoying meself!”

Doug suffered a slightly bloody bump on the head and some aches but enjoyed every second of it saying:

“I want to do things I’ve not done. I was just enjoying the moment… I was a play worker for 15 years so I do believe in your childhood coming back in later years, and that’s what’s happening to me…You’re only young once. For someone like me, 67 years old, a pensioner, making 50,000 people laugh, making the Killers laugh, you can’t not do it…I love live music and I love The Killers, it was a brilliant gig.”

Thanks to Flowers misunderstanding him when he told him his name, Doug has now earned the nickname of “Billy”. Flowers returned to the stage to tell the crowd what happened and soon the entire crowd was chanting “Billy! Billy! Billy!”

Billy, Doug, name makes no matter. The fact is  this man is living life and enjoying himself to the fullest. Bumps and bruises heal, but the experience of it all, the memories, will last a lifetime.

Here’s some footage of him “swimming” thru the crowd and Brandon Flowers follow up.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7_eCFqMa27U