'(Don't Fear) The Reaper' musicians reflect on 'More Cowbell,' debunk myths: 'I don't think it's a cowbell'

The musicians behind "(Don't Fear) The Reaper" are reflecting on the impact of a very silly comedy sketch.

Several current and former members of Blue Öyster Cult, as well as two of the song's producers, appear in the Saturday Night Live documentary series SNL50: Beyond Saturday Night to discuss the history, accuracy, and legacy of the legendary "More Cowbell" sketch, which depicts a fictionalized account of the song's recording.

In the doc, Buck Dharma, the BÖC guitarist who wrote and sang the 1976 track, recalls writing the band's signature hit. "'(Don't Fear) The Reaper,' that's our most famous song," he says. "I was just playing guitar and the iconic riff just sorta happened, and I immediately turned the recorder on and captured it. It was our second gold record, and it eventually went platinum."

Eric Bloom, another BÖC guitarist, concurs. "It sort of lifted us up," he says in the documentary.

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The musicians debate which of the song's three credited producers are the closest match to Christopher Walken's Bruce Dickinson, the fictional producer who demands more cowbell from Will Ferrell's fictional percussionist Gene Frenkle.

"I'm a believer in credits. You know, I think credits are important. And I'm listed as the lead producer," says Murray Krugman, noting that he thinks Walken's character combines elements of himself and the late Sandy Pearlman, who also produced the track. "I think Christopher Walken is an amalgam of Sandy and I."

David Lucas, another one of the song's credited producers, disagrees. "I was the producer of Blue Öyster Cult's '(Don't Fear) The Reaper,'" he declares. "Murray read the paper and drank coffee." When asked who he thinks the real Bruce Dickinson was, Lucas responds, "Me! Well, I was the producer."

As it turns out, there actually was a real music executive named Bruce Dickinson, but he wasn't involved in the recording of the song. "Yeah, he was a staff Sony compilation producer, and he's enjoying his fame," Dharma confirms.

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The doc then shows the back of a Blue Öyster Cult CD that reads, "Produced for Reissue by Bruce Dickinson."

The real Dickinson says that he was amused by his name's use in the sketch. "I kinda thought it was hilarious, but it was like, 'Why are they using my name?'" Dickinson says in the doc. "I had never worked on the original record."

Ferrell says that he pulled that name on the back of a BÖC album. "It's kind of a funny-sounding name. That was the extent of my research: the back of a CD cover."

Perhaps the most consequential conversation about the song came with the topic of the cowbell itself. Former Blue Öyster Cult drummer Albert Bouchard was stunned by the sketch: "When I saw the skit, I thought, 'How did they even hear the cowbell? How did they even know it was there?' And then to come up with this thing about, 'Should it be in there or should it not be in there' — that's exactly what happened! We actually had that debate at the time."

Lucas, on the other hand, says that the cowbell was his executive decision. "I don't remember any debating. There's no voting. We generally do what I say," he recalls. "I knew it needed something. It needed momentum. And the fact of the matter was this was a song about death. Oncoming death. It needed a heartbeat: cowbell. I go get the cowbell, I come back. Nobody said anything for 20 years. But suddenly, after Will's sketch, everybody remembered doing it! I did it. I played it on the record."

Bouchard also thinks he was the one who recorded the cowbell track. "I played the cowbell," he claims.

Bloom recalls, "A lot of different people think that they played it."

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Krugman can't remember who was responsible for the underlying percussion track — and also believes the entire premise of the SNL sketch might be wrong. "I don't even remember whether Lucas or Albert played it, but the irony here, the headline here: I don't think it's a cowbell," the producer says in the doc. "It had that hollow sound of a woodblock, whereas a cowbell has a really shrill metal top-end sound."

Lucas doesn't seem to mind the muddiness of his cowbell memories, though. "Albert played it his way, I played it my way, and who cares," Lucas says. "I've always loved you and I will always love you, and I don't care if you played it or I played it."

Bouchard agrees. "I don't care either!" he tells Lucas. "Fantastic that I get to see you."

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Active Blue Öyster Cult members are a little less thrilled to be reminded of the song. "People started bringing cowbells to our shows — most people cannot play a cowbell," Dharma says. "Everybody thinks they can, then it all falls apart."

SNL50: Beyond Saturday Night is now streaming on Peacock.

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