Musician Evan Marsalli’s campaign to get the attention of Weezer has earned him a chance to join the band on stage this summer.
Marsalli recorded himself playing the guitar riff from Weezer’s 1994 song “Buddy Holly” every day since June 12, 2020 and shared the clips on TikTok. He vowed to do it “every day until Weezer duets me.”
On Monday – Day 990 – Rivers Cuomo finally dueted with Marsalli on TikTok.
“Challenge you to come play this live on Weezer’s Indie Rock Roadtrip Tour this summer,” Cuomo wrote on his video. It was captioned: “My people will reach out to your people.”
@rivers_cuomo #duet with @dietlite_evan ♬ original sound - Evan
Marsalli, who works in sales and marketing, said he didn’t know Cuomo responded until he got to work and saw a DM on his band Diet Lite’s Instagram page. “They're like, ‘Rivers duetted the video,’” he told Radio Milwaukee. "It's just Monday morning, I'm at work, just had my coffee or whatever, and then I see that. I'm like, ‘What the hell?’”
Marsalli said he had no expectations about whether or how Cuomo would respond. “What he did was perfect,” he said. “He could have just honestly just duetted the video with him just looking at the camera or something, and that would have been fine for me. I just wanted to get that duet, you know?”
Weezer is scheduled to play in Madison, Wisconsin on June 14.