Blue Oyster Cult guitarist Buck Dharma mentioned the band was pressured to start out utilizing a cowbell whereas performing their basic observe “(Don’t Fear) The Reaper” on account of Saturday Night Live‘s well-known “More Cowbell” sketch.

Written and aired 24 years after “Reaper” grew to become successful, the 2000 scene options Christopher Walken and Will Ferrell in a recording studio. Walken performs fictional producer Bruce Dickinson, who repeatedly insists that Ferrell, enjoying fictional percussionist Gene Frenkle, enhance the quantity and vitality of his cowbell enjoying, driving the musician to the brink.

In a brand new interview with Guitar Player, Dharma – who wrote the tune – mentioned the “More Cowbell” skit altered the chemistry of “(Don’t Fear) The Reaper.”

“The cowbell [laughs] was an afterthought,” he mentioned. “The funny thing is, before the Saturday Night Live skit, the band never played the cowbell live. We had to start playing it after the skit came out and became so popular.”

READ MORE: Top 10 Blue Oyster Cult Songs

How Real-Life Peril Inspired “(Don’t Fear) The Reaper”

Dharma revealed that the preliminary musical concept for “(Don’t Fear) The Reaper” got here shortly. “The guitar riff that opens the song just came out of my head when I sat down and played my guitar,” he mentioned. “I realized I had something nifty, so I recorded it and messed around with that. The first couple lines of lyrics basically were stream of conscious, and the story emerged from that.”

The lyrics had been impressed by a second of real-life peril that brought on Dharma to reckon together with his mortality. “It came from me being diagnosed with a heart arrhythmia, which I’ve had my whole life, so it’s not a big deal; I take medication for it,” he defined. “But at the time I was thinking of being mortal and just the idea of dying early and leaving your loved ones behind, and then sort of getting back together again, imagining there’s some life after death.”

“(Don’t Fear) The Reaper” peaked at No. 12 on the Billboard Hot 100, changing into Blue Oyster Cult’s greatest chart success, a lot to the band’s shock. “BOC were never a singles band. We were lucky to have a few that did well, starting with ‘Reaper,'” Dharma mentioned. “I thought, ‘This song’s gonna get some FM play,’ but I didn’t think it was gonna be big. So it surprised me. It surprised all of us, I think.”

Listen to Blue Oyster Cult’s ‘(Don’t Fear) The Reaper’