Brandon Flowers has revealed that he’s considering hanging up his microphone. In a new interview with the Times, the Killers frontman compared his life on the road with that of his father.
“My dad goes to yard sales, where he buys frames to take home and paint,” Flowers said. “He’s never had any money in his life and he’s happier than I am.”
He continued, “I’m really going through it right now: How much longer do I want to do this, what does it mean, why am I doing it anyway? Whenever I finish a tour, without fail I get sick. Then I think of Mick Jagger and ask myself: What keeps him getting up on that stage? I guess it’s because there are powerful moments in a concert. How could I not want to do that?”
Elsewhere in the interview, Flowers reflected on his dreams before becoming a musician. “I aspired to be a valet,” he said of growing up in Las Vegas. “I saw my cousins and uncles living off tips, supporting their entire families with those jobs, and my end goal was to work at a nice place like the Bellagio. My first job on the Strip was at Spago in Caesars Palace, bussing tables. I worked at a French brasserie, I worked at a golf course. I loved the service industry. I’m still in it, actually.”
Flowers will release a country album, Thrasher, on Aug. 21. He recorded the LP in Nashville with producers Shawn Everett and Jonathan Rado. Some of the musicians who recorded on the album include Gillian Welch collaborator David Rawlings, pedal steel guitarist Bruce Bouton, and harmonica player Charlie McCoy, whose playing graced Bob Dylan’s Nashville LPs. Flowers has so far shared “Paradise,” “Plans,” and a live version of that song filmed at RCA Studio A.
The musician told the Times that although his musical focus right now is the American heartland, “you can never take the synth pop out of me.”
Flowers described coming to terms with what success means during the interview. He said he found doing interviews difficult when the Killers exploded into popularity in the mid-2000s.
“On top of that we disappeared from home, playing 250 shows for the first record, so relationships were disintegrating,” he said. “But what are you gonna do? This thing is happening, it’s miraculous and enticing, and you have to throw yourself at it. It wasn’t until 2019 that I realised: good art is its own reward. Before then I just wanted to be on the cover of Rolling Stone magazine.”
Flowers will tour in support of Thrasher this fall. The trek kicks off Sept. 1 in Phoenix and wraps Oct. 6 in Las Vegas.
Image via Loto-Québec
Nathan Brown*
