Twenty One Pilots’ frontman Tyler Joseph has compared touring during COVID to the quest undertaken in The Lord of The Rings: The Fellowship of The Ring in a pre-show speech.

Speaking to the crew before their first show at Milwaukee’s Summerfest at the American Family Insurance Amphitheater, Tyler Joseph used a quote from the film to describe how vulnerable touring during a pandemic still is. Watch it below

“I’ll make this quick. This is happening. We’re actually going to be playing shows. I could not help but think of one of my favourite quotes from one of my favourite movies, Lord of The Rings: The Fellowship of The Ring,” he said.

“Galadriel says ‘This quest stands upon the edge of a knife. Stray but a little and it will fail’.

“Why am I telling you that,” he continued, “Well, we’re not in the clear. I know that you guys know there’s a lot of risk involved in going and playing shows right now.”

“So I want you to know that I appreciate you guys taking the extra precautions, being smart and just know, Josh and I will be doing the same,” he continued. “We’ll be trying as hard as we can to get through this entire tour.”

The footage was released as part of the first episode of Twenty One Pilots’ Takeover Tour Series.

These behind the scenes videos will look at Twenty One Pilots’ ongoing tour that will see the band play a series of shows ranging from “rare and intimate club performances to full-on arena spectacles” in select cities in the US, as well as London and Mexico City.

This weekend, Twenty One Pilots also appeared in online game Roblox for an interactive livestream. The five-song set premiered just after Midnight BST September 18 and will be repeated every hour, on the hour, until 7am BST September 20.

To view the concert, people will need to log into their Roblox account or sign up for one here.