Before ‘Thunderstruck,’ Layla Clark Asked to Play the Drums

Before rock fans were sharing her performance of AC/DC’s “Thunderstruck,” Layla Clark had asked to play a different instrument. Clark asked to play drums when she joined band in seventh grade. Assigned to mallet percussion, she grew to love its different sounds.

That detail, reported by the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, gives the familiar halftime clip a different starting point. Watch Clark’s mallets move over the marimba and the part sounds settled into the instrument. Her hands carry an opening that most listeners first encountered through Angus Young’s electric guitar.

The marimba gives each note a distinct strike. You can follow a mallet coming up as the other comes down, then watch both hands shift through the repeating figure. The pace has to stay steady while the rest of the Thomas Jefferson Jaguars wait for their entrance.

The camera makes Clark the center of the recording, but her bandmates are essential to the performance. She told Axios Pittsburgh that she had been playing for about five years and emphasized the contribution of the rest of the group. You hear the result when the field opens up into a much bigger sound.

Clark also told CBS Pittsburgh that learning the part took a long time and that she still wanted to improve it. That observation fits what you can see in the close-up. The riff keeps asking for the next clean strike, even when listeners already know exactly where the pattern is going.

The moment to watch is the change from the opening to the full arrangement. Clark keeps the line moving while the other instruments enter around it. The part she learned on mallet percussion gives the entire band its way into the song.

An instrument gets its moment at the front

The marimba gets a lead role from the first strike. Its notes give the audience something to follow while the other instruments wait for their entrance. Watch how much space the arrangement gives that opening figure, and how Clark keeps the line moving through every repetition.

The line is exposed for long enough that an audience can hear both its shape and its pulse. At this distance, the phone camera also shows the preparation between strikes. The familiar AC/DC figure makes that work easy to follow, even for someone who has never played a keyboard percussion instrument.

See the Jaguars’ full halftime show

The Jaguar Marching Band channel’s October 31, 2025 recording against Mars includes “Thunderstruck” in a complete halftime program. This separate recording puts the mallet part within the wider show, alongside the other players and the movements across the field.

Hear from Layla Clark

CBS Pittsburgh’s report visits the student behind the performance. The interview adds a personal perspective to the playing in the close-up, while the school footage gives a broader view of the community sharing in the attention.