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When Radiohead's Thom Yorke forgot his lyrics, a fan tried to help—but gave him the wrong words

The audience member said it was "the best moment of [their] life"—until they realized their mistake

radiohead, thom yorke, concert, music fans, lyrics

When he forgot some lyrics on stage, Thom Yorke sought a fan's help—and then sang the wrong words.

Photo credit: Wonker via Wikimedia Commons, with Reddit comment
Ryan Reed
By Ryan ReedApr 17, 2025
Ryan Reed
Ryan Reed is a contributing writer for GOOD residing in Knoxville, Tennessee. He has contributed to Rolling Stone, Relix, Revolver, SPIN and The New York Times.
See Full Bio

It’s truly embarrassing to forget your lyrics on stage, but Radiohead’s Thom Yorke made an even more complicated—and hilarious—musical mistake back in 2010. Playing the Fox Theater in Oakland, California with his band Atoms for Peace, he dusted off the 1997 Radiohead classic "Airbag" for a solo-acoustic encore performance. There were a couple innocent hiccups that now live forever on the Internet.

As you can see in the below fan video, everything starts as planned, with Yorke strumming his way through the song’s first verse and chorus. But around the 1:46 mark, he appears to go temporarily blank, stopping the tune to gaze around the theater. It’s unclear from the footage exactly what happens next, but he walks closer to the crowd, hunches down for a few seconds, returns to the microphone, and laughs through a comment.

- YouTubewww.youtube.com

Someone, it seems, helped jog his memory with the next lyric—exactly the kind of moment you dream of as a diehard fan. But when Yorke resumes what should be the second verse, he winds up recycling a line he’d already sung ("In the neon sign scrolling up and down / I am born again") instead of the correct one ("In a deep, deep sleep of the innocent / I am born again").

The fan in question later detailed their account in a Reddit thread titled "I gave Thom Yorke the wrong words to his own song at a concert, and he sang them."

"[The song] was beautiful until he got to the second verse and completely forgot the words," wrote user oldmanwicker. "He looked around quizzically and saw/heard me screaming the words at the top of my lungs from the second row. He stepped over his amp, took out his earpiece, and leaned over the row of people in front of me so I could shout 'NEON SIGN!' into his ear. Thom jumped back up to the mike, said 'I've gotta stop smoking that shit,' and resumed playing.'"

Initially, they felt this was "the best moment of [their] life"—until they listened to "Airbag" a few days later and realized their lyrical flub. They had a sense of humor about the whole thing, though, even joking, "Am I allowed to claim I had a creative influence on Thom Yorke?"

- YouTubeyoutu.be

In a Rolling Stone excerpt from Jason Thomas Gordon’s 2023 book The Singers Talk, when prompted to share his "most embarrassing vocal mishap ever," the Radiohead leader recalls a similar incident.

"There was one time we played in San Francisco in this really nice outdoor place, Shoreline," Yorke says. "It was a great show, really, really fun. The audience were brilliant. Then, before the final encore, I smoked a blunt with Jonny [Greenwood]. I went back on and started playing [Radiohead’s 2000 song] ’Everything in Its Right Place' and got completely lost. I think I sang the second verse first, and then I was looking at the keyboard going, 'What’s this?' [Laughter.] Then, I went to sing the next verse, and I realized, I’ve just sung that, and I looked at the others, and they were all going [makes a face] 'Get us out of this one.' I’m just going around the riff, looking at the audience, and they’re all singing the words, and I’m going, 'What?' [Tries reading their lips.] I was so high, I just got up from the piano and[puts his hands up in surrender] walked off. [Laughs hysterically.]"

- YouTubewww.youtube.com

radioheadconcertsrock starslyricsfandomthom yorkemusiciansmistakessocial mediamusic

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