They say to never meet your heroes, but it looks like Nate Vickers had an incredible experience meeting Jared Leto for the first time.
Who is Nate Vickers?
For those who are unfamiliar with Vickers, he is a 27-year-old alternative-rock artist known for top-notch tunes like “Over & Over,” “IN THE END,” “Hurt Myself” and more, with his musical style stemming from bands like Linkin Park, Three Days Grace, Nirvana and more.
Additionally, the Texas native has a strong social media presence, amassing 1.4 million followers on TikTok by sharing covers and original music to the platform. Little did he know that one of his covers to “The Kill” by Thirty Seconds to Mars would land him onstage with the musical duo.
Vickers Ends up onstage with Thirty Seconds to Mars
On September 3, Vickers took to Instagram to share the once-in-a-lifetime moment with his 456k followers.
“I performed ‘The Kill’ with @jaredleto x @30secondstomars in Houston last Thursday,” he gushed in an Instagram caption, accompanying images of the big moment. “Nearly 11 years ago, I covered this song in my ‘studio’ — which was just a shed in my mom’s backyard — and here we are now.”
He continued, “Three days before this, I quit my job of nearly 10 years to finally pursue my career as a full-time artist. Two days after quitting, I get an email with this opportunity that I could NOT pass up. Big thank you to the 30STM team for having me perform this with them.”
While performing with Thirty Seconds To Mars, Leto stopped the show to tell the crowd how he discovered Vickers from his impressive cover of “The Kill,” which he admitted he was “blown away” by.
Vickers shares the story with Music Mayhem
Naturally, this was such a special night for Vickers, sharing with Music Mayhem in an exclusive interview what the moment was like, as well as how it came to be.
Believe it or not, the talented singer/songwriter was recognized by Jared Leto about a year and a half before this big moment, when Vickers shared a cover of “The Kill” on TikTok: “Jared Leto ended up duetting it and sharing it on Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, everything, and that just like blew up across every single platform that it was posted on. I mean, it probably got 20 million views if I had to guess, a cumulative between everything.”
It is clear that Vickers had been a fan of the tune for quite some time, as he had also shared a cover of the song via YouTube about a decade prior.
Admitting that “nothing ever happened again” with the TikTok cover, the 27-year-old decided to shoot his shot when he realized that Leto’s band, Thirty Seconds to Mars, was hitting his hometown of Houston, Texas: “I was like, ‘Hey dude, I saw you were coming through Houston. I was just seeing if you wanted to maybe connect and meet in person. I’m the guy you duetted forever ago,’ and they were like, ‘Sure, but would you like to perform with us as well?’ which was obviously completely not even an option in my head when I initially reached out to him.”
Although it was “super scary,” Vickers could not turn down the opportunity, taking the stage and singing “The Kill” alongside Jared and Shannon Leto.
Interacting with Jared Leto
Although performing onstage was an experience like no other, Vickers unfortunately did not get to interact with Leto as much as he had hoped throughout the evening, however, he understood that the artist had bigger fish to fry that fateful night.
“Unfortunately there wasn’t much time for like a conversation. He was kind of in work mode,” Vickers explained, but he clarified that Leto ensured his presence was known while mixing and mingling backstage.
He added, “Any time he walked past me or saw me, you know, he would give me a fist bump or a high five or something like that. Like, he definitely wasn’t like ignoring me, but I could just tell he was busy, but he always made sure like, ‘Hey, I know you’re here. You’re good,’ so that alone was enough for me.”
It is safe to say that this moment onstage with Thirty Seconds to Mars may be a catalyst for an illustrious career within the alternative-rock space, but we will have to wait and see where Nate Vickers goes from here.
To stay tuned on Nate Vickers’ future endeavors, be sure to connect with the fast-rising star on Instagram @natevickers and TikTok @natevickers.
