Brandon Flowers on Richard Dawkins clash

Brandon Flowers of The Killers has opened up to Hot Press about his controversial clash with celebrity scientist - and famed atheist - Richard Dawkins on a Norwegian TV chat-show.

“I wasn’t expecting what happened,” he told HP’s Olaf Tyaransen, in an exclusive interview. “I didn’t expect it to be so full-on, I guess.”

The incident occured last September, when the singer appeared on Skavlan, a Swedish-Norwegian show. When journalist host Fredrik Skavlan began inquiring about Flower’s religious beliefs, the slightly embarrassed star spoke positively about his Mormon upbringing and his unwavering belief in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

A few moments later, he was effectively ambushed when Skavlan introduced the author of The God Delusion onto the show. Dawkins wasted no time tearing into Mormonism, calling The Book Of Mormon “an obvious fake” and referring to church founder Joseph Smith as a “charlatan.”

“I did know Dawkins was going to be on,” Flowers says of the incident. "I didn’t expect him to be so vicious about it, and I was sort of taken by surprise. I knew that I wasn’t going to convince Dawkins that there was a God or that there was a Creation. And he didn’t convince me that there wasn’t one. So anyway, it was strange. I never thought I’d be in that situation on TV.”

You can read the full interview in the new Hot Press, out tomorrow (Thursday).