The Killers frontman Brandon Flowers was asked in a new Rolling Stone interview if the political climate of the United States in 2017 influenced his songwriting on Wonderful Wonderful at all.
“Well, there’s two ways to look at it. You can address it, or you realize that music can be an escape. It’s tough to write protest songs. Neil Young and the Clash and Bob Marley are really great at it. If You’re going to step up to that plate, you better have a big bat. I don’t know if I was ready to do that. I also had a very specific thing that I was shooting for on this record that didn’t have much to do with Donald Trump.”
Flowers also said attending a recent U2 concert celebrating the 30th anniversary of The Joshua Tree, and it made him cry.
“I went to the Rose Bowl. When they began ‘Where the Streets Have No Name’ and the screens lit up, I started to cry. I was just overwhelmed with what it meant to me and how happy I was to be there. I live in Las Vegas, and I see Joshua trees every day of my life, and I always think of that record.”
Brandon Flowers criticized Green Day for what he saw as their calculated anti-Americanism in an October 2006 interview.
In particular, Flowers singled out the track ‘American Idiot’ and the fact they filmed their DVD ‘Bullet In A Bible’, which features the song, in the UK.
“You have Green Day and ‘American Idiot’. Where do they film their DVD? In England,” The Killers’ frontman told The Word. “A bunch of kids screaming ‘I don’t want to be an American idiot’ I saw it as a very negative thing towards Americans. It really lit a fire in me.”
Explaining he was offended by the set-up, Flowers added: “You have the right to say what you want to say and what you want to write about, and I’m sure they meant it in the same way that Bruce Springsteen meant ‘Born In The USA’ and it was taken wrongly, but I was really offended when I saw them do that.”
The singer added he felt the DVD was a bit of a a stunt.
“I just thought it was really cheap,” he explained. “To go to a place like England or Germany and sing that song – those kids aren’t taking it the same way that he meant it. And he [Billie Joe Armstrong] knew it.”
The Killers’ frontman said he believed that his band’s album Sam’s Town is a much better representation of America.
“People need to see that, really, there are the nicest people in the world here!” he declared. “I don’t know if our album makes you realize that. But I hope it’s from a more positive place.”
