Nathan Aspinall ditched his trademark "Mr Brightside" walk-on and debuted a new song ahead of Monday night's German Darts Grand Prix semi-final against Kevin Doets.
For years, Aspinall has made his entrance to the sound of "Mr Brightside" by The Killers.
It is widely regarded as the ultimate walk-on song – a guaranteed crowd-pleaser, if you will. So when the Stockport-born player made a surprise change last year, some raised eyebrows.
Back in October, Aspinall updated his walk-on music to include a remix that started with Eminem's "Lose Yourself" before dropping into his traditional "Mr Brightside" anthem.
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“I was practising in the dance room, and Lose Yourself came on”, he said after his first round victory at the German Darts Championship. “The beat hit me, and I thought that could be good. We got it edited, and it sounds amazing."
“Eminem is my idol, and I absolutely love his music”, added Aspinall. “It gets me in the zone before a game."
Six months later and, ahead of his 7-2 victory over Kevin Doets in the semi-final of the German Darts Grand Prix, Aspinall decided to use "Lose Yourself" for the entire walk-on.
As seen in the footage above, his new song choice received a great reaction from those in attendance. In fact, Aspinall credited the Munich crowd for, in his own words, making him fall in love with darts again.
"I've had a lot of knockbacks this year. I've been trying to keep myself motivated and sometimes it's hard, but nights like tonight are why we play this game," he said.
"I did an interview on Saturday saying I was trying to find that love for the game again, but this crowd in Munich gave me the love for darts again."
It is unclear why Aspinall has decided to switch his walk-on song, but PDC chief Philip Brzezinski confirmed that the change was deliberate.
After a fan on X suggested it may have been "more of an accident than planned", Brzezinski replied: "It wasn’t a mistake. Nathan has wanted that song for a while now, and today we gave it a try for the semi-finals."
Nathan Aspinall feared PDC would take Mr Brightside walk-on song away from him
Towards the end of last year, Aspinall was worried he would lose his trademark walk-on song if he failed to make the Premier League line-up.
“I hope they wouldn’t do it to me," he told The Sun in December. “But I have had a bit of a concern at the moment, obviously because I’ve fallen down the rankings and I might not potentially be in the Premier League this year.
“Mr. Brightside makes the Premier League, in my opinion. Everyone loves it. Are they going to give it to someone else for the Premier League? Can they do that? I don’t know."
“I’d be very disappointed if they did," added Aspinall. "That’s the only thing that I’ve thought about recently that could potentially happen.
“They can do what they want, can’t they? Let’s be honest. They probably wouldn’t care if I wasn’t in the Premier League, if you see what I mean.
“But that’s the only thing I’ve had a bit of a concern about recently. Say Gian van Veen, he’s got some weird Dutch song. Would they want him to walk out to that in England because everyone loves Mr. Brightside? I don’t know."
Topics: Darts
Jack Kenmare