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Oli Sykes Explains Why Bring Me The Horizon Bring Fans Onstage After His Own Teenage Moment
Oli Sykes says Bring Me The Horizon bring fans onstage because he once got that chance himself at a Funeral For A Friend show.
Bring Me The Horizon’s habit of pulling fans on stage is rooted in a very specific memory for Oli Sykes, one that still seems to shape how the band thinks about live shows. In a new SiriusXM interview, the frontman said the idea comes from being given the same chance as a teenager, when singing with Funeral For A Friend turned into the kind of moment that tends to follow you for years.
BMTH have made a recurring feature of inviting someone from the crowd up to sing Antivist during shows, and Sykes framed that as less of a stunt than a handoff. He recalled being about 15 when he saw Funeral For A Friend and their singer became too ill to continue. According to Sykes, the band stopped after their vocalist passed out midway through the set, then returned to say they could not carry on. He was shy, by his own account, but still volunteered.
“The singer was really sick and he passed out halfway through the show. They all left the stage and came back saying ‘We can’t play,’” he said. “I don’t know what I was thinking because I was the most shy kid, but I went, ‘I’ll sing’.”
The response, he remembered, was disbelief first and permission second. They let him on, he sang a song, and it became, in his words, “the greatest moment of my life.” Sykes said strangers came up to him afterward to praise him, and the feeling stuck. “I think I cried after. My mum was waiting outside in the car, and I was like, ‘Mum, I just sang with Funeral For A Friend!’ It was so sick… so if we can do that for another kid, it’s just cool,” he said, adding, “And I get a break during the show too which is great!”
Funeral For A Friend jumped into the comment section to say they remembered it as “a fun one” and noted that “Oli nailed it.” They also clarified the song: The Art Of American Football, from their 2003 EP Seven Ways to Scream Your Name.
That exchange lands at a time when Bring Me The Horizon are already leaning hard into their own history. They kicked off their Ascension Program 2 North American tour last month, using opening night to debut Youtopia live for the first time and bring The House Of Wolves back into the setlist. More recently, the band announced two special Manchester shows for Outbreak, marking the 20th anniversary of their 2006 debut album Count Your Blessings.
They are also due to release a “reactivated” re-recording of Count Your Blessings in July, described as aiming to make the record “sharper, heavier, and more vital than ever.” Alongside that announcement, they shared footage of Sykes recording deathcore vocals in the studio.
Elsewhere in the band’s recent run, Bring Me The Horizon brought their “immersive” L.I.V.E. In São Paulo concert film to cinemas worldwide, followed it with a 48-hour digital broadcast, released the Illenium collaboration Slave To The Rithim, and saw Sykes launch the live production company Patient Zero after debuting visuals at the Las Vegas Sphere.
There has also been movement around …Nex Gen. Last summer, Sykes told NME at Reading that 12 more songs could still arrive as part of the album’s “Director’s Cut,” though he noted that timeline may have stretched now that he is the father of twins. “The music will come, but it’s just not the be-all and end-all,” he said. “We’re realising that we don’t have to put another record out; we just put one out. Most bands would go away for two years, have an actual break. You don’t have to do this, but I want to and I enjoy it. If it doesn’t happen, then it doesn’t happen.”
Funeral For A Friend, meanwhile, were earlier confirmed for an exclusive headline slot at this year’s 2000Trees. Their bill also includes Alkaline Trio, Glassjaw, PUP, Sprints, Lambrini Girls, Cancer Bats, Dinosaur Pile-Up, High Vis, Ho99o9, Pinkshift, Superheaven, and more.
