HUMPHRIES WISHES HE MADE MAJOR CHANGE EARLY IN HIS CAREER
10/11/2025 By Aaron Nijjar
LUKE HUMPHRIES admits he cringes watching back the best moments of his career because of his walk-on music!
World No. 1 Humphries secured the World Championship title in 2024 after halting teen sensation Luke Littler in the final.
Newbury thrower Humphries lifted Sid Waddell Trophy to ‘Cake by the Ocean’ by DNCE, his entrance song that Sky Sports gave him as he hadn’t selected his own.
‘Cool Hand’ since put things right by switching to ‘I Predict a Riot’, by Kaiser Chiefs who hailed from his native Leeds.
But Humphries wishes he made the change earlier in his tenure at the oche.
He told talkSPORT: “To be honest it’s hard to watch things back when that’s the walk-on.
“It’s that thing you get where you say ‘what was I thinking? Why did I not change that earlier?’
“It’s a song that Sky Sports loved. I never picked it myself, but yeah I look back now and think I could have changed it a lot earlier to something a lot better.
“I’m happy I changed it to what I’ve got now because the crowd love it. We’ve got so many players now like Jonny Clayton who say ‘this song is brilliant, I love it’.
“I know it’s been used before but it suits my personality and the way I play so I took it on and it suits me.”
Humphries explained why walk-on songs are so important; he listed a number of other classic examples at the top of the game.
He added: “One thing with walk-on songs is it has to attach to you. If you don’t associate people with it then it doesn’t feel real.
“With Nathan [Aspinall], Mr. Brightside, you just think of Nathan every time you hear it, Greenlight you think of Luke [Littler], White Stripes you think of Michael [van Gerwen].
“I think nowadays when I Predict a Riot comes on I get tagged with it so it associates with me well and I think that’s what you need in darts.
“You need your personality to match the song so I think it was a great choice for me to switch over.”
Eight-times major winner Humphries was then reminded of his Ally Pally triumph with Cake by the Ocean playing in the background.
He laughed and responded: “I wasn’t really caring at the time because I knew I’d just won half a million so don’t worry about the song!”
And if he wins it again in 2026 with the Kaiser Chiefs ringing out, he won’t be worrying then either, with the prize now up to £1million.
Image by Taylor Lanning.
