Brandon Flowers has disclosed that Bruce Springsteen nudged him to write out the lyrics to Thunder Road before the two belted out a duet on the track at Pinkpop.
The Killers’ frontman is a devoted admirer of The Boss and has been fortunate enough to develop a personal rapport with him. Back in 2009, they joined forces to perform the 1975 rock staple—the opening track on Born to Run—at a festival in the Netherlands.
In a fresh interview, the Somebody Told Me star recalled the surreal moment backstage ahead of their joint performance.
He told the London Evening Standard: “He put a piece of paper down and a pencil, and it was almost like, ‘how well do you know the song? Write out what you’re going to sing, what I’m gonna sing’. And I knew every word. We sang it together alone in his room, and that is about as close to heaven as you can get.”
The 45-year-old musician is full of celebrity anecdotes and also recalled Elton John singing Happy Birthday to him at his home.
He spilled: “They brought a cake out.
“If you would have told me when I was a kid that Elton John was gonna sing me happy birthday one day…”
It’s insane.”
Bruce, now 77, had previously gushed that Brandon has “one of the most beautiful, pure voices in all of rock ’n’ roll.”
The Boss presented The Killers with the Special International Award at The Ivors last year.
The Dancing in the Dark rocker—who featured on The Killers’ 2021 track Dustland—paid a glowing tribute to his friend and collaborator and recalled the first time he heard the Las Vegas band.
He began: “I haven’t been to Sunderland so I’ve got my voice tonight. The first time I heard The Killers and songs of Brandon Flowers, I was walking past my high school-aged son Evan’s room. I was just passing by, and the song I was listening to through his door just stopped me. I popped my head in and said ‘Who’s that?’, and he said ‘That’s The Killers, pop.’”
He continued: "I was standing there, and I heard that classic line from Somebody Told Me: ‘Well somebody told me you had a boyfriend / Who looked like a girlfriend / That I had in February of last year’ and I said ‘That’s a clever line’. Took me a minute to figure out, and then I said ‘That’s a f** clever line.’
“What really synched the whole deal was it was tied to this massive hook. It was like the earworm of all earworms, that from here on in, you’d be singing somewhere in your head for the rest of your life. So for the next week, I found myself going ‘I had a boyfriend then had a girlfriend sometime around February’… I didn’t have the lyrics exactly right, but they melody stayed in my head forever.”
“I bought the record, Hot Fuss, it’s filled with catchy lyrics, enormous hooks. Mr. Brightside, Somebody Told Me, All These Things That I’ve Done, just great, great songs. It came out June 15th, fantastic time to come out because it made it the summer record of all summer records.”
He went on: “After that came Sam’s Town. Sam’s Town was a big, big change for Brandon and The Killers. They really went towards heartland music, they had a great record called When You Were Young and albums filled with more terrific songs. They came out of Las Vegas, which is a strange place for a band to come from – most bands end up in Las Vegas, they don’t come out of Las Vegas.”
