Prime Suspect

While keen to present themselves as a four-way democracy, it’s obvious that Brandon Flowers is The Killers’ dominant creative force and has a power of veto which is regularly exercised.
The only member of the band who was actually born in Las Vegas, he moved to Nephi, Utah with his Mormon parents and siblings when he was eight. Being from the big city wasn’t the only reason he stood out there.
“Brandon was probably the only Smiths fan in Nephi, period,” says Wyatt Boswell, a friend since sixth grade who now tours with The Killers as a guitar tech. “He never had a girlfriend the whole time he lived there. It’s a little farm town that thrives on football, so he was seen as kind of off. ‘You play golf? You listen to Elton John?’ He caught a lot of shit for that.”
By the way, that wasn’t a typo – Brandon Flowers is a mad keen golfer.
“I don’t have time for it at the moment, but at my best I played to a five-handicap,” he reminisces. “I was 16 and thought that maybe I could make it as a pro. I’m glad I didn’t because I really don’t like those sweaters they wear!”
The person who supervised his musical education was Flowers’ 37 year-old brother, Shane.
“What got me into music – well, proper music – was him showing me stuff like Smiths videos and Rattle & Hum, which was a really big deal because you got to see not only the band but the way the crowd were reacting to them,” Brandon reminisces. “The next thing I picked up on was The Cars – without ‘Just What I Needed’ I wouldn’t be here! That was the one that made me go buy a cassette on my own. The Killers really are (Cars mainman) Ric Ocasek’s fault!”
Their name crops up regularly, but nobody, least of all Flowers, has said whether his first group Blush Response were any cop or not.
“We were pretty good. I’d come up with vocal melodies and play them on the piano while the girl in the band wrote and sang the lyrics. I never felt right just playing the piano – I was a lead singer trapped in a keyboardist’s body, I was living a lie! The first time I sang on stage with The Killers was totally petrifying, but now it’s something I really like and need.”
He must have been a bit miffed when, reviewing that gig, the Las Vegas Weekly compared them to A Flock Of Seagulls.
“Oh, man,” he sighs. “People are so narrow-minded. They see a keyboard and automatically think ‘80s’. They’re not musically literate enough to put you into context, so they revert to cliché.”
Brandon Flowers ought to be using his new found superstar status to snort cocaine off supermodels’ breasts, but no, the silly boy’s gone and got engaged to his Urban Outfitters store manager girlfriend Tana Munbkowsky.
“She’s been with me the entire time I’ve been in The Killers,” he coos. “She wasn’t a Mormon when we met, but I didn’t convert her. She just saw how my family was and it was attractive to her. I didn’t push it upon her at all.”
The complete works of The Cars aside, which records would Brandon rescue from a burning house?
“I’ve got five!” comes the instant reply. “John Lennon Imagine; David Bowie Hunky Dory and Ziggy Stardust; Morrissey Vauxhall & I; and The Cure Head On The Door. Life without all of those would not be worth living!”

Read Hot Press' investigation into the making of The Killers here