These don’t feel like Killers songs… they’re quite personal, says Brandon Flowers on the inspiration behind solo album
WHEN Brandon Flowers was a kid, his dad tried to teach him how to fight.
The lad had been picked on at school, so his father Terry talked him through what to do if it happened again.
Decades later, a memory of that time helped inspire the title of Flowers’ third solo album, Thrasher.
The Killers’ frontman still remembers sitting beside his father Terry in his old 1946 Chevy truck. “I was in fifth grade, so only 11 years old,” he recalls.
“My dad grew up fighting and I still remember him trying to explain to me how to fight.
“You can explain to me all day, but I’m not a fighter.
“He’d say, ‘You don’t just swing. You think about when you’re going to throw your punch and you have to block yourself’.
“When I’m on stage, I find myself doing it so much. You have this crazy relationship, boys and their dads. I’m still trying to show him that I can do it.”
Flowers is all smiles when we meet at his central London record label. He’s just back from a week in Scotland with his family and feeling refreshed and rejuvenated.
Thrasher arrives 11 years after his last solo album, The Desired Effect. It is inspired by country and western, the music his dad listened to when Flowers was growing up.
“Much has been said about how my love of music came from my brother [Shane].
“Yeah, it did, but at the same time, I was hearing country music from my dad. His favourites were the heavy hitters — Johnny Cash, Waylon Jennings and Merle Haggard — along with some of those who were not as famous. There’s a guy named John Conlee who he listened to, who I really love.
“As a teenager, I felt I had to choose — the kid who listens to New Order doesn’t also listen to Waylon Jennings.
“As I get older, I just seem to gravitate back to my father’s music.”
Flowers says he has become closer to his father, and increasingly like him, as he has grown older — and admits he is still trying to prove himself to his dad.
He says: “I’m trying to show my dad that I can do what he does. He’s a good man. He’s doing pretty good.
“He had open heart surgery at 81, which is a difficult thing. He’s five months past it now and is pretty good.”
Ideas for Thrasher began shortly after Flowers finished The Killers’ last record — 2021’s Pressure Machine.
He says: “I really enjoyed making this. It was a very important record to me. I didn’t want to leave it alone, so I just continued. It was such a revelation.
“I had all these memories, all these characters and sadness — all of this stuff that I could now find a place for and turn them into something.
“These songs don’t feel like Killers songs — they’re quite personal, so it felt natural that it should be a solo record. It’s been nearly ten years since the last one — I can’t believe it.”
Thrasher is a beautifully observed, emotionally affecting record.
The first single Plans “picks up where Pressure Machine left off”, says Flowers.
“It does a good job of representing the record. There’s some strong emotional material on this album.”
One of the most moving songs on Thrasher is One Of Us, a tribute to his sister’s late husband.
Flowers, the youngest in his family, jokes that he was always told he was “a surprise” — until he was eight, when a friend’s dad bluntly informed him he was “a mistake”.
“I have a sister who is 17 years older than me so her husband was around since I was a little boy.
“He was my brother, so when he passed, it was just heartbreaking and completely unexpected. He was just out of heart surgery. You just want to pay tribute to them and my sister loves it.”
The warm, wistful Paradise finds Flowers imagining the life he might have led, had music not taken him away from home.
“I always thought I would be a valet parker. That was my goal,” he says with a chuckle.
“And if music didn’t work out, it was my Plan B.
“I would be really happy to support my family and be a valet. That’s what my cousins and uncles have done — bellman and valet.
“I have a cousin, Bobby, who has spent his whole adult life as a valet parker, and he was sending me some texts one day complaining about work.
“I was sitting at the piano and just jumped on it, and used it as a launching pad for a song about an ageing valet parker.
“It’s basically him, and it’s where I would be right now if I didn’t have this incredible thing happen to me.
“I have this empathy for him and I’m exploring what could have been and what might have been. There’s sadness in it, but there are also winks and nods.
“That’s the thing I love about country music — how those can coexist.”
Thrasher was recorded quickly in Nashville with seasoned session musicians, including legendary harmonica player Charlie McCoy, whose credits include Bob Dylan, Roy Orbison, Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash and Dolly Parton.
Flowers says: “He played on all those Bob Dylan records and on Roy Orbison’s Oh, Pretty Woman and Simon & Garfunkel’s The Boxer. He played with Leonard Cohen and had great stories about them all. He’s the mascot of Nashville and so incredible.”
Flowers says that the song Red Ground came especially quickly.
“I was trying for a Lee Hazlewood vibe and that song fell into our laps. These guys do this every day for hours. They make decisions that would break a band.”
Thrasher also finds Flowers making peace with his own past.
Although Las Vegas has always been central to The Killers’ identity, he admits he once felt conflicted about his Utah upbringing.
Now he says: “It did feel like I was keeping Utah a secret because I am happy to wave the flag for Las Vegas, but had a bit of a conflict about Utah.
“Now, there’s nothing wrong with embracing both.
“I look back with more tenderness now, and I’m so grateful for my upbringing there.
“I really lived in a golden time where you’re just free. It was before phones and technology and was idyllic — like something out of Stand By Me.”
Having interviewed Flowers many times over the past 20 years, one of the biggest changes is how much more comfortable he now seems revealing parts of himself he once kept guarded, particularly his Mormon faith.
He says: “I was so shy back then. I’m still shy, but I was also unsure about interviews and you don’t know what you’re supposed to reveal.
“It’s so not rock ’n’ roll to talk about Jesus in a positive light. It’s very common in sports but I think people are less open in music.
“There is this authenticity turmoil, where you feel like we’ve always glorified hedonism and debauchery in rock ’n’ roll — and even beyond rock ’n’ roll.
“In every kind of art form, those seem to be the people that we really revere because they are outliers. But I’ve realised it doesn’t make me any less creative because I have faith. I’m just never going to be Sid Vicious.”
Flowers, 45, says coming to terms with his different identities, and simply being himself, has become easier as he’s got older.
“I’m more forgiving of my younger self, but I’m still hard on my current self,” he says.
“We all have that inner voice and it can be the worst critic.
“It’s not been easy, but I now realise I can be that guy on stage, and also a family man,” he explains. “But I was so conflicted for a while.
“Half of you feels like an imposter, and then the other half is trying to show why you belong — it messes with your mind. I was lucky to find something that I was passionate about.
“That’s what I encourage my boys to find.”
Flowers’ sons Ammon, 19, Gunnar, 17, and Henry, 15, have all grown up with their dad on stage — but they are not impressed by his status.
Flowers says: “Ammon loves fitness and being outside — he is just about to go to college in Philadelphia which he’s half excited and half scared about. My wife is sad about him leaving home.
“Then Gunnar loves horror and 90s rock and a lot of grunge, too.
“Henry is a football fanatic so when The Killers performed at the Champions League Final in Budapest, he got to meet David Beckham and was in heaven.
“Mick Jagger was there as well but it was all about Beckham, who signed a football card for him. He’s also a full-blown Oasis fan, so I need to take him to see them when they play again next year.”
Flowers remains hopeful about the future, even though he admits he is deeply troubled by Donald Trump’s America and the actions of ICE.
“This administration is scary,” says Flowers.
“It feels so un-American, and it goes against all of our values and the things that are beautiful about our country.
“You do feel a little bit hopeless and helpless.” But he still believes change can come through younger generations and the ballot box.
“We have to remember to use our voices and to fight back at the polls when the time comes.”
He adds: “Nobody from the other side is rising up at the moment. Somebody needs to rise up. Get the hell up.”
Never one to stand still for long, Flowers has always had an impressive work ethic.
Another solo album is already in the pipeline, with a new Killers record also expected in 2027.
Until then, he is excited about his solo tour, which begins next week and arrives in the UK in October, including a night at the Royal Albert Hall.
He’s already debuted songs from Thrasher at July’s Newport Folk Festival — the famous Rhode Island event where Bob Dylan went electric in 1965.
“I’ve got a band together. This tour is going to be a different experience than you are accustomed to,” he says.
“I’m going to tell more stories and take advantage of these smaller rooms — the Albert Hall is the biggest room I’m playing.
“I want to explain the story behind the songs, which you can’t do in a stadium — so I thought this would be the time to give it a shot.
“I worry people will get sick of Mr. Brightside so I feel lucky that I have different outlets for my music.”