It’s a bird, it’s a plane, it’s a nuclear explosion! But first, it’s Peter Gabriel!

Silo Season 3’s penultimate episode delivered a fair share of jaw-dropping moments, from a major character death to the apocalyptic event that drove people to seek shelter underground. But one of Season 3, Episode 9’s most shocking reveals was legendary singer Peter Gabriel performing an iconic end-of-the-world anthem at the big Silo unveiling event mere moments before disaster struck.

Back in Silo Season 2, Peter Gabriel’s song “Red Rain” memorably played from Jimmy’s (Steve Zahn) vault in Silo 17. And it turns out, Gabriel himself was assigned to Silo 17. As Dr. Victor Crnkovic (Matt Craven) tells Daniel (Ashley Zukerman) mid-Gabriel performance, the singer played the event for free, because “he and his family wanted to see inside a Silo, just like everybody else in the world.”

So how did Silo get Peter Gabriel to perform on the show in Season 3, Episode 9? DECIDER chatted with Silo creator Graham Yost to learn the incredible story, which includes Yost’s real-life pal, Slow Horses creator Will Smith.

“We approached [Peter Gabriel] in Season 1 to do the Freedom Day theme, and I wanted to do a rework of his great song ‘Solsbury Hill,’ because I like how the music evolves over time. It didn’t work out. We got a great song written. But [Gabriel and I] connected, and we started talking about various things, and then I approached him for this, and he said he would do it,” Yost told DECIDER over Zoom.

“It was known on the set as Peter Gabriel Day. ‘Are you going to be there for Peter Gabriel Day?’” he said. “Yeah, PG Day,” Silo star Rebecca Ferguson added with a smile. Naturally, a guest this big inspired Yost to invite the diehard Peter Gabriel fan in his life to set. And the day did not disappoint.

“I invited Will Smith, the showrunner of Slow Horses, and he is a huge Gabriel fan. Will didn’t know that he was going to be there. And I went out to meet him at his car, and Peter was coming back to use the loo, and I hadn’t told Will. And he looks down, and he goes, “Oh, fuck me. Is that him?’ And I said, ‘Yes.’ And he said, ‘This is the greatest day of my life.’ I said, ‘Don’t tell your wife that. But yes,’” Yost recalled. “It was a beautiful day. And he played the song, and his son and his son’s girlfriend were there (on the side of the stage), and we just hung out all day. It was great.”

So yes, Peter Gabriel and family are canonical Silo 17 residents. And for those wondering, Gabriel performs a 1986 song called “Here Comes the Flood,” which features incredibly relevant lyrics like, “The jaded underworld was riding high”/ “We’ll say goodbye to flesh and blood”/ “You’re a thousand minds within a flash. Don’t be afraid to cry at what you see.”

With humanity at risk and Daniel separated from a pregnant Helen (Jessica Henwick) when the blast hits at the end of Episode 9, the future of Silo looks bleak. But hey, if the world had to end, at least we got a Peter Gabriel performance first.

Stay tuned for more Silo Season 3 coverage from Decider.