not supposed to be kicking and screaming like that after 20 years man supposed to be making songs that sound like been that long uh this is more than just a collection of of some of your finest moments um put into an album form Rebel diamonds beautiful artwork poignant name says a lot we'll get into that a little bit a beautiful reflection on the history and the success of of a band um that you called The Killers it to me
it's more personal than that because it's like a it's part of my journey like it's you showed up at a time not to make it personal but I can't help it you showed up at a time when I was making a huge leap forward to try and find my
voice and my value to music and an audience and bright side showed up and changed my life too yeah oh it's wild it's well when we first went overseas and you were you know you know you were a t you were the taste maker I just got
that job by it though just was like uh the to have your support for us early on was was was huge if you want if we should go through the when you were young in the human story that I have with you also I would like to go through
those too yeah because they're great stories for me I'm not I'm going to get out of the way of those but I mean you know it really was a moment when a song showed up and um you felt the direction that music fans who love music of that
of that emotional caliber shifted just a couple of degrees it doesn't have to go 180 everyone talks about how something comes along and Shakes the world up sometimes it's just an Ever So slight shift but if you go 20 years you're very far from where you would have gone if you kept going down that straight line that's what I'm trying to say that song Not only put you on a trajectory but music fans who love the killers and love
that kind of music on a trajectory very far from where we were hit it so thank you for that oh you're welcome everybody yeah thank you for all of it and also thanks for taking so so much care on this um let's talk about the concept of best dos or greatest tits or whatever you want to call them uh it's a beautiful idea that that got kind of co-opted by the music industry and by artists to be fair and used in lots of ways that I don't think it was
originally intended to be used it was used to get out of record contracts that's right it was used to help to sell ticket sales and just give people a reminder that their new music isn't quite hitting like their old music was
um and it really became something that a lot of other people did for artists like just to sell records and get some Revenue when Christmas time greatest TS lets go I mean became a cliche and what's beautiful about this is that I
know this is a very Personal Collection cuz there's stuff on here that you left off you kept it at 20 for 20 years and you made really personal decisions so thank you for that and how is that experience being yeah it's been wild so
what's funnily enough for me my my introduction to to some of the Bands That Shaped me were was through best ofs I know it's not like it's it's it's a little bit frowned upon but my first cassette that I went and spent money on
was the car's the car's Greatest Hits every kid should start there because you how you Discerning beyond that yeah so it's a it's a nice easy you know approachable way to a band for starters um and and it allowed us like like you referenced to to also shine a light on some songs that have taken on a whole other Journey than they were meant to early on and then also some songs that maybe didn't see as much light as we'd hoped maybe because of Co
or whatever it was yeah no within the context of all of it it's it is a beautiful start to finish experience that shows an enormous amount of Journey that has been traveled but also that you have remain true to those those early fires that each of you bought into that rehearsal space into that writing room all of your personalities are still very strong all the way through I think yeah it's tough It's funny you just it's tough to
extract and it's tough to get them out of there because there is a magic to it there's a magic to to the the whatever you want to call it the the chemistry the chemistry yeah the what everybody brings to the table and it it can be apparent if if
somebody's not firing on all cylinders or if they're not there yeah and we try to make up for that when that isn't possible but it's but you know it's the heartbeat's always there vucci is always is always there VCI the party
always continues the party continues I mean that was the running text me and him had for about 10 years we haven't done it for a while but we just sporadically text each other and just go does the party continue that would just
be a to say either one of us would do it neither of us were partying just the idea made us made us smile um do you remember what it was like let's be real specific here do you remember can you put into words the feeling when you
fired up for the the first time oh yeah I so for me it was be it's funny cuz it does predate a couple other guys but for me I remember me and and Dave had written Mr brideside but we didn't have a drummer yet and so there was this moment where we were just at a at at a guy's house who was trying out to be the drummer for The Killers and we said we have the song and it's about this Tempo and we showed him Mr brideside and so I
it was my first time hearing it with a beat what was he doing 16s on the high yeah I me it was you know it was trying to keep you know it had some heat you know it's a Quick tune yeah it had some heat and I was on the bass cuz I can hold down eighth notes on a bass that's about all I can do very well very well like everything you do but but listen so I have a jump shot as well but nothing in the nothing inside the paint so I I'd been touched
by I'd been touched by music you know for some time at that point but never my own and I'm hearing this song and singing the song for the first time and my my my hairs are standing up and I'm like what you know this is and this is
wild this is our song yeah and that was that I mean once you feel that it's tough it's tough to turn around and and want to do anything else I mean what a hand what a hand the to keep it in Vegas what a hand to the table top of the
night yeah it was it was incredible I want to then take it to to when Ronnie stepped in because to your point great drama is the difference between great songs and careers it's true and that's something I was not aware of I was green
when we first started I was only 20 years old I was using a fake ID to play in the bars that we were playing in um and I did not quite appreciate what everybody needed to bring to the table for us to be a success and for us to to
have staying power and I'll tell you a funny story about that is somebody that does does know about that is somebody like NL Gallagher and one of our we were doing the nme tour and we're playing at Brixton Academy or something and we heard that no's going to come to this show so every he's probably there to see France Ferdinand or Ka you know or somebody but he's he's on the guest list but he's coming and after the gig we
finish here he comes here's you know this is one of my heroes he walks in the door and I'm just I'm I'm so excited walks straight past me straight to venucci it's got taste it's got taste and and just and it was just just start I was like oh we're going to like we better we better like keep an eye on what what Oasis drummer is doing but U he loved yeah he was a huge fan of of him right away I mean in in many respects when you first started
performing these songs live and I know because you acknowledge it in this beautiful letter you don't mind me making this observation on a personal level um we were looking at him more than we were looking at you we it it
felt like he was stage ready for you were Finding Your Fate yeah he was he was definitely more seasoned he had been in a lot of bands and and toured and this was my first real band and so I say you know people ask me why I sing the
way I do and I it's because he's on the drums I got to keep up with him yeah yeah I remember seeing some early shows with you and the songs were hidden it was the other way round back then you would see a band Live and be like oh they're ready and then it would take them two albums to find their sound you had these SS were just ready made and then we go see you perform live and it was like you were trying to figure out
what you meant to the songs you'd written yeah that's right I was so nervous um and I you know what I and I'm not trying to sound self-deprecating or humble but I had such I have such admiration and reverence for the greats
that it just felt it I felt so out of place absolutely like what am I do what am I doing here you know and and it took it took years and years for me to to finally say okay I belong I actually think it took When We Were Young I think
that's to me like you say years and years fair but I actually think that it wasn't even album Number Two it was that song gave you your from a fans point of view gave you your theme song your Anthem that was yours to own and you could put your costume on CU that's what it is you can't be yourself on stage I know you've got to can I tell another story now that just cuz Segways into it this is not name dropping it's just it's
just lessons we're here for stories the lessons I've learned over the years so I we we did a on our Beast sides record we have a song called tranquilize we did with Lou Reed yeah and there's this amazing moment where we're filming the
video everybody's on the location and I'm in a room that's just a just me and Lou yeah and he came in his street clothes yeah but he's getting ready for for the video and he's leathered out just like all you know leather pants
leather boots leather jackets yeah and me and him are in the room alone and there's a there's a big mirror and he looks at himself he's got sunglasses on the whole thing and he points at himself and he says I wish I was that guy and my
I mean on that it's my whole my whole world shifted here's Lou Reed so I feel I feel like I want to keep it for myself but I think people should hear that that story emotional yeah it was like I'm emotional not just
cuz he's no longer here but because that's what I want people who changed our lives to say yeah when they acknowledge themselves yeah as the people we saw AB I don't need to know the real lri it's none of my business I want to know that
guy and it was really it was profound for me man and so I I I profound now yeah seriously it's a really it's incredible it's really hit me that because I just think it it's such a I'm so glad you told that story it's such a
beautiful reminder that we have to let the artist continually change shape yeah so back to when you were young it was like you said to be able to take ownership of something I mean after this that huge Monumental record that first
record was to be able to have a song like that oh dude it was so good because you were one of four or five bands that came out at the same time and you held your own and you made what I would consider to be a classic 2000
alternative record yes right could have stayed there a lot a lot did sadly a lot did yeah and and yet that song was like bye it's like your car was all of a sudden six miles down the road you know do you know what I mean well we were you know well we had flood and Moulder at the producing sure and we had our eyes we always were looking up I guess and it was all you know of course we're big admirers of YouTu and people that that that had
these crazy careers and did great things so I think that helped that and that ambition that we always had I mean now can I tell the Z love story so legitimately so it's obvious now that that was the right choice when
you were young but we were we were sort of torn between that and another song called Bling on the record which is a great song we're proud of it proud of both but we didn't know what should be the first single so who should you call we call
zann loow to come to the studio and can I say I don't do this and the reason I don't do this is because it's your album dudes like I mean it was a it was it was a stressful decision you also didn't tell me that was what was on the table you just said come hear some songs and we sat down and it was the flood sessions you play me six songs including bling and we're like we've got it right do you remember that's right you
didn't play me when you were young I know but what we when we did no because I said I don't know if you have it oh the nuts on me I mean seriously what was I thinking no but when when we did and your reaction was all you know
it was so obvious I got angry do you remember no I got angry because you took me upstairs to mold's room and said well we have this other song but it's not finished yet and brid wasn't quite finished you convinced Allan to play me
in its play it to me in its infancy that's right and I was like the are you wasting my time for that is true I forgot there were two we had the studio separated yeah flood was downstairs and you were like we've got it and I was like I don't know is there anything else and you were like with there's one other song took me upstairs and I felt like I was on Candid Camera it was uh so that really I mean that was a that's a huge moment in our
career being you know you got to choose the right single I I love you telling that story I've also quietly told that story to a few close friends cuz I'm proud of that moment too but that song was going to kick its own way through
yeah I mean that song is a St a wild horse it's funny that's what have you heard my oh I I I I anyway I I'm we're going to do a little bit of a spoken word introduction to this best of and I refer to it as a as a horse it is I'm so
glad we're on the same page because it totally is it's just it's so beautiful and completely untamed and it was still untamed and I love in the letter you referred to the first time you played it in Blackpool I was there that was a radio one show and I was there oh man yeah that was the there was you wound up with a dude and and I think was that the first time you realized that you had made it in the perfect jumping Tempo that [Applause]
was I didn't even realize and then everyone's just like it's like they're jumping with it was just a w it was a wave it was so wild the B room man you talked about it in the lettery I feel like that was eight years ago feels like yesterday to me I was there with my wife watching and it was like uh I it's a big room it's like 5 6,000 it's like it's like the it's like it's almost brickton and um I was like it's under that's these
are all underplays from from here on out it just felt gigantic you talked about it sting a shock wave up up your your body and the feeling you got when you played it for the first time there was something about the
chemistry the way that when the band kicks in and Ronnie and Dave with the drums yeah it's so cool it's a great it's just so electrifying I wish it was my idea I don't I don't remember who it was but can you just like put elaborate a little bit on that
feeling and even today when it starts what it feels like for you being being on the horse yeah it's uh you you realize over over time what there's so much to take in when you're playing it live because there there's some people
that have been to 50 shows and there's going to be some people it's their first time seeing it and so I feel like a duty and an obligation to to give it like like I'm in Blackpool again and it's and it's our first time and and I still am
able to hear it through those people's anticipations even though I might have played it 800 times and and I I still get just as excited to play songs like that that was the album you played GL for the first time headline the pyramid stage album Number Two right yeah they asked us on album one and we turned it down smart and that's so that's one of I think about that sometimes that some of those moves that we made we had an insane offer for
when you were young from Dodge and we said no and we were babies it was it was money seven figures crazy oh yeah it was money that life changing and we said no can you remember okay I won't say exact or I don't know what if you want anyway it was a lot of money so what was how much was it it what they off let's say it's like $5 million Jesus Christ and we're we're young kids we're kids my dad made $20,000 a year at the grocery store what was that
conversation like it was tough it took us days we thought about it yeah and we thought about things like like like like like a rock you know that the Chevy commercials Seager song so you're trying to convince yourselves you're like Sega did it because there were reason there there listen when Jack White did a cad all bits were off do you remember the White Stripes did the cad everyone was up in arms and someone said to him why did you
do it and he said I drink it that's true I mean kind none of us had none of us had a Dodge I guess he would have done so anyway I think about those kind of decisions and it's like man we're we're we're maybe we're cooler than we
think you've always been cooler than you've thought you've always been cooler than you've thought that's what makes you cool what um who who comes to mind when you have to make those decisions there's somebody in the back of your
mind that you admire some artist that held the line I mean you you became friends with Lou Reed there isn't anyone who walked the line harder than Lou Reed that's right those guys all the you know the a lot of the greats are like that if you look at um at that point spring steam would have just entered the equation for us and so you you know that he wouldn't have done it and that would have been probably leading the way uh at
that at that time for sure in 2006 there are things you have to do in order to continue to maintain your success in the first 5 to 10 years of your career as a musician and artist perhaps they're nuanced now because there's other things
you have to do off your own on your own terms maintain social media profiles get a Tik Tok account things that do I really want to do that I have to do it back then it was more structured it felt more industry orientated a ton of this a
ton of that I'm probably on the list ton of stuff you just tied and you don't want to do you have to do when you think back on that era how comfortable difficult challenging how much of a learning curve was that finding success and then realizing that it's hard work holding on to it yeah it was a I think it was a lot more work than any of us anticipated um even all the way down I think people don't we say it and I don't know if they
believe me but we weren't even thinking about making music videos and what that entailed or you you're just in there and you're getting to know each other and having fun making music yeah and and and it felt like overnight we were just you know and I know how how lucky we were to to have it happen so quickly but we just got thrust um onto this machine and and I was not prepared to be doing interviews yeah was I was I'm still a
little socially maybe behind or awkward and and I definitely was when I was 23 years old and I was and and so my my first thing was I'm just going to do a little bit of a Liam maybe or you know and stick my chest down I remember that
yeah and and it it's so easy to say why is Brandon that's not why did he say that I remember the enemy mean things yeah yeah it was crazy I didn't have anything else to say I didn't know what I was doing yet I was just a baby who'
you pick fights with again there was some I can't remember there was oh it was all over anyway you know I I did I I did apologize to I think almost everybody so so that that's under the bridge to remember I know it is but it's a good it's a good time it's a good time to remember but it's a good time to remind your friends the dick era you know yeah well the enemy well the enemy you know they they would eat it up and it was just so so easy to be
controversial but if if you think about it now it's almost it's almost it's almost Charming the way it used to roll out through the the enemy filter because it was like Hey you know we're the platform and you guys want our our headlines and we're willing to give them to you and it's all just a big playground now on social media it's like thank God you got out of that cuz that's a show I know that's and it's not who I am yeah like it's not who
I am so I'm I'm thank thankful I figured that out so when did you figure it out when did what was the song what's the what's the moment on on on this album when you started to feel more comfortable in your own identity and not
have to live up to what people what you thought people wanted I think I so we had our our first son me and my wife had our first son in 2007 M and so it was somewhere there was a big sh a big change started to happen it's amazing
what it does to you um you evolve I know cuz we had kids around the same time and so I just I I I started the softening process I watched my dad he's 79 he's going to be 79 and and it's it's amazing to watch from when he was you know in the prime of his life till now his views and the edges everything just soft you know has softened and softened and softened and and I think that was the first the first instance in my life
where that began that process began was he tough on you when you were younger um he was he's very my mysterious to me he's a he's a Qui he doesn't doesn't talk a lot um but he it's just how it's just it's just how he is and he was was
but he was good no he wasn't he wasn't tooo hard to me but it obviously is is one of the reasons why you went to music and found a space to let your imagination and your soul Run free yeah it's a really it's a funny story that I
also have you just want me to Bear my my whole my I'll try to make it not too long but I everyone asks me where does the music come from is your family M Musical and I I've always sort of pridefully said no no one is yeah I do this this is I did this by myself right and what's funny is I just had forgotten there's my great grandma um she wrote country songs and poetry and when when I was 6 years old her family her kids were going to put her in
a home and my mom her granddaughter said I want to take her and we took her till she died and she came they they brought all of her belongings in a horse trailer you know out out to the desert where we lived and just dumped Dixie and and all
of our things off at our house and one of the items was a piano and that just Chang that's where I got my piano lessons I would have never never played music without that amazing and now I just think about this woman
and it's like there there must be something that gets passed down and and I'm so grateful for my grandma it doesn't have to be um a gigantic influence or or a seismic activity in your life my my grandmother's name was Dixie finally know if we call Dixie but my grandfather played guitar and um he would play every now and then on local pubs or whatever but he wasn't like a recording artist per se that I'm aware of and um but that
that presence really stayed with me the sense of how when he would pick the guitar up everything else would fall away whatever whatever conversations that reach boiling point between my mom and her mom and D was always feisty
everyone would just listen yeah that's oh cool GNA go through a few of these songs get some thoughts man all these things that I've done it's such a beautiful recording but it will never live up to the experience of seeing that song Life
yeah and the coder the moment when it goes into the beginning of the end and then it really becomes about what where the crowd takes it and you have to follow that moment was that a huge graduation moment for you as a live band because it's it whether you mean it to or not it is creating connective tissue with you and a crowd yeah there's this communal experience it when we started we're playing it in bars and we we played the
the middle section the I got sold but I'm not a soldier section we played it just how it is on the album we didn't add you know now we sort of extend the hell give the people their shot and and we we re we started to realize we took
it off for a while we we would go out we'd be opening for Stella Star and we would play we had you know five songs to play whatever hit him with the big ones just SM him with the quick ones yeah so so we took that one we started taking it
off cuz it it wasn't happening um but then something just just clicked and and we started to you know be become more cognizant of being performers and and and a live band and bringing all of these people you know to have this experience and and it and it and it grew and it grew and it grew and it's just a Festival performances when you've done that song and I'm looking at the bill and who's coming on next and I'm like this is bad
this is bad for you you know it's you were dangerous at those 6 p.m. slots before you headlined and you were playing those 6 p.m slots before glast andry when it all changed you were a problem I mean it you'd have to be queens of the Stone Age to go on after you or something you know what I mean it's like completely different different kind of power powerful song are you any closer to understanding where that lyric came from oh yeah um
it's always made sense to me and it's funny you know there was a couple there were people that that sort of made fun of it and poked had some fun with it I think somebody had a there was a famous comedian in uh England that had some
joke about I'm I've got ham but I'm not a hamburger but I'm not a hamster you got to love the BR got to love you British no but you know it's not your fault it was also it was there was a British writer who I don't I don't
I don't remember I'd have to find the article but he he actually laid it out what it meant and he said it perfectly and it was this was only a few this was only a couple years ago that that came out just that it
is you are it for me at the time I was struggling with with my with my faith and I grew up um raised in you know in a religious family and I I've since become more devout again but at this time I was was in this weird sort of nether region
I hadn't been going to church but I felt that I was still a good person and so that's basically the the gist of I got sold but I'm not a soldier when when when people that are um ra in the LDS church that I was raised in when you turn 19 you go on a mission if you if you want to go on a Miss you're not forced to go on a mission for two years like my brother went to Chile wow for two years um and you serve and when I
was 19 I bought hunky dory from David Boe that was your mission and that was it man I was like when I got hunky dory um I for whatever reason it's this you know this masterpiece that seems unattainable to a mere mortal but for me it was like oh I'm this is what I'm going to shoot for what was your experience with Bowie um really really influential on me and my late teens because it's it's funny because a lot of the groups that I grew
up listening to were all of them were influenced by him and I didn't get to him till till till the end of it and so I had a really I had so much fun like when I was 18 to 22 I ODed I I ODed on it I can't even yeah um another
highlight for us you know he came to see us I think at the B Ballroom yeah um in two before anybody even had uh cameras on their phones they knock on the door so there's no I think he did and he brought he had um he had some producers
with him and um yeah it was pretty pretty amazing he the only time you met him yes and man I mean talk about being nervous at a you know and your nerves and and and a test for a young band that's one of the things I've always loved about you in the band though is that as you've become your own form of icon to us and to fans and to other bands you've never relinquished that sense of being a fan you don't always get that sometimes
people decide to trade the feeling like the um perception of fan for artist I feel like you've always been fan first oh yeah yeah I still I'm so so excited by by by great songs and and and going back and finding things that I that I
had never heard before and I'm still really um emotionally attached well makes sense that you and Elton have become so close he and I are close because he is the world's greatest music fan yeah and um you know I know that he has been an
enormous guide for you throughout the years as well of different ways as he has for me yeah in your own words because he's spoken so openly and eloquently about you and how much he loves you in the band what do that that relationship meant to you throughout the years it was so so huge especially in in the early days to have someone I mean he's like myth you know it's like mythical so it's weird that these some of these guys are just are breathing
walking Among Us yeah it's true and he's one of those you know maybe there's 10 like that on the earth you know and for him to back the the band and talk about talk about this you know he would talk about somebody told me or he loves read my mind or you know and stuff like that he's like the way that he would talk about the music and about the the way we played live it was just you know you could walk a little bit taller after
that and a band needs that he's the great confidence instiller yeah he's also he'll take it away too real quick he'll tell you he'll tell you it's not your best uh he yeah he's told me I yeah i' had great conversations with but I think about you know he's just he transcends everything yeah yeah and he I some of the greatest Mo memories I have with my dad it's not a talk that we had it's on a road trip listening to elton's greatest hits yeah
sharing a moment it's just awesome music and it was like those those were some of the you know like I said some of the most tender moments that I can think of are just me and my dad sitting and listening to to th to those songs I also love the relationship obviously he's had throughout his life with Bernie as a Lyricist I love Bernie's lyrics Bernie has an ability to make words work together that shouldn't I feel like are we human or are we
dancer is could have been a like a Bernie topen lyric to me yeah I could see that I can I can imagine Alton singing it and everyone going well that makes sense yeah if he did it he probably would have got as much yet so
so okay let's get to the bottom of this cuz you talk about in the letter I'm kind of as you can tell weaving through some of the points the so you do have the I've got the letter it's beautiful yeah and um and so I want to talk about
the lyric because I always thought the lyric was I I love it when things are subliminally eccentric in lyrics but sound normal um but let's just get to the root of the lyric where were you when you wrote it did it did it catch
you off guard were you like that surprised me even like where's where does the line like that come from I knew it was I knew it was weird and we were we were touring Sam's toown so I had a mustache and yeah you were leaning in so
and I was wearing boots when I wrote human and and um I I saw an interview probably you know or some on the internet of Hunter S Thompson and he he said I'm a you know this is an old interview obviously and he said I'm
afraid that we're raising a generation of dancers and I just instantly I just you know wrote something down and and went and I would play but singular not plural yeah now I know I took I yeah I still took some some some license cuz that's
the moment that I think everyone has analyzed is not the term are we human or are we daners it's the fact that it's singular that's right like am I dancer yeah you're dancer oh cool I'm just making sure because it sounds normal when you say it but when we heard it it was it was a a similar time to the there was this rise of DJs yeah and so I I was seeing a uh I was seeing parallels between between this culture and maybe
how people were looking at disco you were like this is a do Punk observation so I and I don't want to go much further than that cuz I'm not trashing that whole thing you just made a dance record the new one on the B off is a dance record so it was like it's uh it it was it was sort of thinking thinking like that and and trying to see where we were going as generational Our Generation was changing yeah and it was and a lot a lot of it if
you you know Vegas was was really at the Forefront of all of that oh for sure no you you proph toe but at the time you're right it really caught people off guard I think anything like that that comes along that people like but don't
understand they can decide whether they it changes their perception of it and I think some people decided it's weird and I don't like it but later on they all scream it back at you did you kind of like that did you like the fact that you
created an eccentric subliminal shift I felt like if I felt like it if like if Bowie or somebody had had had had the line they would nobody would have cared or or they would have just and so so it felt like that to me it felt like Brian Ferry or or or David Bo or something like that I love that on the on the track listing here the 20 songs over 20 years um it's not it's not ill weighted at all you've you've absolutely paid respects
to the albums that you've made as you've continued and so you should I mean man when you came out with the man you opened with it at Lola Pala and it was like everyone had been listening to it for 20 years I mean validation again you
know so you continue to write these songs that continue to sit beautifully next to the songs we've known for longer um but but how is that experience seeing them in relationship because it's not just it's not just the band that has
changed sonically and by Design it's also personally yeah there were songs on here that I don't know did Mark play on all of them you know yeah yeah he might not have played on a few of them right and so how does that sort of how do you how do you kind of come to terms with that when you when you're presenting The Killers discography yeah so yeah we've we if people aren't aware we've come to an agreement within the band where there
are Dave and Mark are still in the band and but they are sort of um we call it like a revolving door situation Dave's going to be around sometimes Mark's going to be around sometimes and um and so on these last few tracks on the best of you may have some that have just Dave or some that have Mark or or some that don't have Dave or Mark uh but they still feel very very much like killer songs and and and there's the one like what you're
speaking about with this the one thread that runs through all of this um is just this the the authentic I think pursu of of of of our finding ourselves and and and that's something that that isn't going to you know disappear you were very respectful when there were shifts in the dynamic of the band um that's just Chum in the water for music press and music fans it's like these four Dudes from Vegas it's like the dream is over right
like oh man where's Dave you know oh where's Mark and oh it's just Brandon's band now it's just like you know and you you never Rose to it but I do get to ask you 20 years on I'm so glad you're in this situation where people can pick and
choose and whatever works in the in the it's very flow State y that that approach it's like cool yeah see you on Monday yeah see you next Monday you know but was that hard to get to that place for you and for Ronnie who have been
consistent throughout was it hard for you to find a way to be able to rationally and emotionally accept the new reality versus feel even yourself this isn't the dream yeah yeah I mean because it is the ideal situation is you know the four of you can can stick it you know stick it out and and figure it out and we just are such different individuals and we didn't you know we if I mean going back to it's always a band that you go back
to or you look at Cold player you look at you or something like that these people they they they seem to know each other for a long time and we we are from different backgrounds and we and we didn't know each other for very long
before this all kicked off yeah it was very very quick and and we've evolved in different ways over the years but yeah so it's some some of the things that that me and Ronnie don't understand about the other two that are you know
they have just as many glaring things that they don't understand about why me and Ronnie are okay to go do 100 gigs every year and so it's what's but like what you said before it's what's great is we found this this arrangement with
that that still will work and there and it can still you know you you might see four of us play together again you might not you know but it's but it still can work it's a very modern loyalty it's it's like there's a you
have a very high EQ in the band now to be able to do that it took it's like you said it took a little bit of getting used to and and grappling with and wrestling with but I'm really happy with how how you know what it's turned out
it's a beautiful story in the letter about runaways um and it seemed to me like a real moment for you to realize that the metric of value has changed that it doesn't need to be a number one at radio for it to matter to somebody in
a store right who has a one-onone conversation with you and if you haven't read the letter when this comes out um please paraphrase the story but I I also love and I'd love to you to to sort of elaborate beyond the story about how
that may be changed the future of the band because that chase for the Eternal validation based on Metric on like numbers and stats and radio hits you've got to shift your mentality at some point that's right everyone does yeah
it's um you have to you know it's it music has had such a profound impact on me that at some point if you have gratitude you know for for what's happened when you're in a position like mine you have to think about what you're doing and what what you're putting out and what kind of a service you're offering and yeah and so I back to the story that you're talking about I met this young man that had his wife was pregnant he was had he had a new wife
and a baby on the way and he got runaways he understood what this song was talking about you know I was just getting to that age where people were starting to get divorced and I was you know it was kind of wild for me to watch
my friends go through that and thinking about where we where you know where my country was headed and and and all of these things and trying to get my feelings into this this song you know you got four minutes to do it which is
it's a short time it's h subject matter you yeah yeah and so that may be one of our maybe the first song with three verses um um which it's that's breaking that's breaking the the yeah that's breaking the PO first course middle L and out yeah and so we have a third verse because to to get all that in there you might need three three verses anyway um this this kid understood the song and and it and it it it made it
touched him in a way that it made him think about what he was doing and how he wanted his life to go and how he wanted it to go differently than Maybe he was subjected to Growing Up yeah and it was like just powerful for me to hear that that it had gotten through to him even though it wasn't getting blasted on the radio like the other songs wasn't that the point of the song in a weird way at some point if you're raised by
Springstein you have to have the courage Springsteen head to walk away from Bor to run that's right it's a um people like that Trailblazers like that you know have so much to offer us if we if we if we keep our eye eye on
them how do you stay in the room with some of like bring you how how do you even control yourself in situations like that I'm getting better I'm getting better at it I'm not I'm not numb to it um but if you can just maybe take a beta blocker
for no I'm just joking no I'm getting better it took me a while to get uh to be able to be around Elton um but yeah and BR Bruce has just has been so accommodating and and and taking me under his wing a little bit and and how
much of that how much of that those relationships now do you do you search for okay it's about it's about what you what you it's not like we go to we develop friendships to mine for things or go or to use friendships but they inevitably
influence so so in the beginning I'd imagine it's like the trade is like your music is the reason I make music so let me just figure this Dynamic out yeah but then a lot of the people that you surround yourself with buil bu very
successful lives for themselves away from all of this Bruce Springstein right the second marriage is Contin you know incredible Legacy of of the balance between family and being the boss Alton and David Lou Reed and L Anderson you
know does it get to a point where you start to look for different things from people who are older than you in this business because you realize like actually I want that too I I I want to know how you did that yeah you're look that's I mean I can't help but try to observe what they're doing because they're s like you said they're they're successful they're so otherworldly successful with their music but they also have this other success yes and
that one of the great lines from John Lennon when when he's in uh woman is he thanks Yoko for showing him the meaning of success he was in the Beetle and so I that it goes it makes me think about like the things I learned growing up about what kind of friends you're going to have and what you know what things we you should seek after and so that was a big and I I mean I just don't want this to be a big Springsteen uh advert but it was a huge
change for me because you go from from worshiping things like depesh mode who I still love same but there's there was a lot of Hedonism and debauchery and all that yeah this is a Redemption story yeah that's go so you have that kind of stuff and then it's like oh wait here's this guy that sings about things that that he's speaking a language that I understand he's singing about people like my parents yeah and he's M he's
he's been married for 35 years and he's got the his kids are great and it's like okay I'm starting to he's a domistic badass yeah it's like you can still build a beautiful life for yourself and not leave the fire at the front door
right yeah oh yeah and so and you just start you know it's it's another another Testament to to those guys that that are able to do both of those things let's talk about dying breed I want I want some reflection I love that song it's
something that came again and in sort of this this latest era of the banish um I think I feel like we're on the verge of a new era by the way so I'll quot the latest era um I just love I'd love to get a story about where that song came
from because it really is a standout for me in this collection I'm glad you chose it well I'm a religious person yeah and um so it's it's I think back to that you know people want an authentic um artist and it's impossible
for me to to be authentic and communicate through through songs without referencing yeah yeah and so that so every year my my church gives a different like curriculum so it'll be the Old Testament M the next year it'll
be the New Testament next year we have a book called The Book of Mormon and that year it was the New Testament and everything was about becoming reconciled with God and becoming reconciled with each other and and so we made this album
imploding The Mirage where I just I just leaned into what I was reading and and made this record that's all based based on that and so Dying Breed was was no different and and it's it's just about letting my wife know that I'm that I'm I'm hers and and and that I'm she sometimes struggles with a little bit of anxiety about my job and and want you know what what's going what's can be difficult how far you going to take this
yeah and how far down the road is this going to go yeah yeah and just and that you know what worries about temptations that I might have or whatever it is and this is just like this um it's almost just as much for me
um as it is for her to you know just this to remind each other of our you know the convictions you know when you commit to religion as a as a child it it to some degree it's handed it can be handed down to you and it feels like something swep
in the family dnam EAS to have a convers when everyone's on the same page M um then you make a decision later on that you're going to um form your own identity and then you get to decide whether you come back or not this has happened I I don't say this as a general rule but this is what I've tended to see with my friends who have gone back into the religious um Community it's been very much on their terms when they come back not on not
what was predesigned for for them so my question Brandon is what is it that brought you back and what is it that it gives you as an adult as a as an individual not a member of a family why did you go back and and how how does it serve you to be a better person yeah so this is so weird to talk about okay it's it's not curiosity because I love religion as a I love the idea of community and family and something to serve and something that
gives solace and prayer for ambition and for love but I think I think there is a misunderstanding for people who don't understand right they they think you're or they think you're naive or you're gullible um or or you're just programmed
to believe this and this is your that's why I said it up and said this was your decision to go absolutely yeah I'm drawn so there's this great scripture that says um let me think of the scripture um okay you ready for this come my father
sent me that I might be lifted up upon the cross that after I was lifted up upon the cross and that after I was lifted up upon the cross that I might draw all men unto me I feel drawn I feel I feel drawn by by Jesus Christ and um I feel drawn to him I want to follow him and when I do my life is better it's just it's you you could put it put it to the test and when I don't I feel the repercussions and if we all you know if if everyone
could F could do that you know imagine what what would happen you know it's it's I think it's pretty incredible that you've been able to make to come to terms with that strong attraction that that that that gravitational pull and continue to find a way to incorporate it in your music i' I've felt for artists that I know come from deep and and exist in a deeply religious State who don't feel that they can put that in their art
yeah that's common yeah um yeah and you don't hear a lot of people speak about it um you know you look to I take comfort in people like Johnny C even you know Johnny Cash was always uh always devout whether he showed whether his
action showed it or not Elvis yeah no but you to you know people like you too you I mean there's a line that they walk and they've been able to do it just beautifully and that's of course something that I am uh aware of and Co
of because I share a lot of the you know the same uh faith that they have yeah Mr bright side man we got to go back to the stop we have to we have to did you like that Swift okay on Let Let Me Tell the human story too oh yeah we okay just
talk about human so it was just as important as the when you're were young moment was the human moment with Zay l so we he comes to Olympic we're we're stuck between human and Spaceman for what's first we don't tell them which
songs by the way but at this point I know what they're going to ask for this time so I'm coming I'm a little here we go all right I appreciate that I'm excited to do this so we had played space man at some point human human starts cuz there's tough it was it was difficult within the band because the song because of that line I think yeah um but uh human first chorus Zayn's in the back of the room with his arms up and it was like all right we got
it you already had it no but we needed we need a confirmation what's really interesting is I was two for two and then never ask me back again after that so I reckon someone in the band probably M we don't need that kiwi we got this um
n listen I mean the thing I always loved about coming in and hearing those songs with you and I've done it with a few bands like I'll do it with I'm sure there'll want me saying like I'll definitely go in with the 75 when
they're in process and there's a few people who I'll go and listen with regularly and stuff when they making music they have if they'll invite me and what I love about it is um I genuinely love seeing you lost because I know that
it's going to be incredible because you're not out of the woods yet you're so immersed in what you're making and what's and what you're trying to finish that and this is really this is this is very common people in people's
lives are come to go that one because how the heck do you know it that point I mean how could you possibly I don't even know how you finish something and are able to execute put it out it's tough until until you ju until it's you know until it's mastered and and you made a video or whatever it is and you and you just got to let go um and I think our our track record has been pretty strong so far about picking I think picking the
right singles oh definitely I love the man I mean I told you when that came out I loved the man I I loved that to me was like you you put your Vegas outfit back on and it was like oh I can that character's just closet I just got to pull them out and put him back on and let me and that gives you a chance to really take a look at what's going on around you tongue and cheek but also very direct really really fine line you walked on that song
beautifully oh thanks yeah it was uh it was fun it was fun because there it's funny too it's it's I I struggle with it live because some people in the crowd some people get it yeah some people don't get it they all you know they're
they're some people some people get it and love it some people get it and hate it some people don't get it well some people will feel like you're talking about them because to me it is the closest thing that that The Killers can
get to almost making a little bit of a political statement that's what I took from it and I know you dressed it up in a way of like there's all kinds of Power you know in that world but I always took it as like you really want to trust the man
yeah I want to you know got to leave some things open to interpretation yeah Mr bright side we're going to go back to the start as we near the end is there a story about Brightside that immediately Springs to
mind that you've never really told or never really elaborated on that you could share with us today because it's really where our relationship began and I've asked you about it dozens of times I'll try to think yeah there's a couple I mean there's little things I've talked about before I've T you know I've talked a little bit about seeing Oasis um at the Hard Rock in Vegas at a joint and I wasn't a huge fan yet I became I became
a big fan later but um I walked in I just went in to see the Encore I got in just in time to see The Encore a guy gave me a ticket I would hang out at the Hard Rock yeah yeah um and I saw Don't Look Back in Anger and I up to that point I was all syn pop and I'd never experienced anything like this there were people were hugging and shouting you know and just singing along yeah and I that was that song made that experience made me instead of look
for another synth geek I wanted to find a band and you wanted to write an Anthem yeah and I wanted to respond to that and you've seen that from the stage how many times I mean can you you've seen millions of people respond to that song over the course of the 20 years of the band are there little images once in a while that spring to mind of individuals the way they responded the tears or the emotion the hugs the smiles can you be
micro about it can you can you store it that way uh I don't know if I can I yeah it's it's there's um I don't get you know people ask if I get tired of it and all of that and I how could you get tired of song
no it's I've never put that song on and wanted to turn it off once I'll try to think oh you know so the court okay you want to know you want to get technical with the court so so the chorus is C Sharp um FP B flat minor yeah a flat major yeah
so I was learn we we were going through like that geeky phase where you want to know what f are doing with cords or whatever you know that With or Without You is cyclical MH and so it's the same four chords over and over and over so if it was in that scale it would have been C sharp A flat B flat minor FP so anyway just the shap those shapes so I took those four and just changed them a little bit and and wrote bright side so
it was still just still just trying to be you too love that though there's nothing wrong with that this is the thing like why would you not take song that made you feel something and see if you could just change it ever so
slightly and see if you can get the same reaction and speed it up and make people jump yeah cuz that's the thing I love about that song so much is it's a deeply emotional moment for people you're immediately remembering someone that you
love or you miss or a great time in your life or you're healing from a terrible time in your life it's rare that songs can you can put 10 people next to each other and everyone's going through a different thing but there it's all with the same purpose I can't quite wrap my head around being on the other side of it still cuz I was it wasn't I don't feel like it was that long ago that I was out there in the crowd and and and looking for those
moments and sharing those moments with people I mean I I remember we we I saw the Cure with with the guys early on and I got emotional during pictures of you yeah Ronnie still makes fun of me for but it's like yeah you just like you
yeah it's like you said had that same thing was just reminded me of maybe it reminded me of my brother or whatever it was and and I just got I got hit by it you've given us 20 of these now out of I mean there's so many that could have
gone on here the good news is the albums exist I mean Johnny maybe could have gone on there but that's just me I don't know how you ignore I don't know how you ignore that riff I don't know how you eny that's like one of the alltime greatest riffs ever made written in modern rock music bring that one out you still play that live you know what it was you know what that was based off what California Dreaming no it is yeah oh my God I
never picked that at all you you could probably the letter is beautiful and the decades disappear two to be exact poof gone where do they go I mean we're meeting at Ronnie's after I get off his next off this next shift at the Gold Coast right
no and yes man 20 years isn't it crazy it's crazy I got 20 more I got 20 more me I know and I love the way you finish it you know we're not done I feel like why do I feel like there's music around the corner am I am
I off the mark no I think I think we are planning maybe some anniversary shows which I would I wish that I could tell more I don't it's it just keeps getting underplay Sur why would you go and I mean why would you not celebrate by
going and getting sweaty and up close yeah well so we'll figure something out there and then yeah then it's my oh they're here I want to say anything they are small yo one of those is small dude oh my God bro that is like I might
have to come out for that all right and then uh he's like please stop talking what anyway yeah I think you know the goal the the the goal for me which I we need to get everybody on the phone is uh is to get all four of us to make to make a record yeah because I understand the touring takes its toll but making music is still fun right even for Mark and Dave and yeah if if the chemistry is still there and you're all Still The
Killers regardless of who shows up for work then making an album's got to be the low hanging fruit here in terms of it's time yeah definitely time how exciting who would you get to produce that I mean youve you've worked with so many amazing producers and covered so much ground I mean the new song Spirit sounds almost like you're working with Stewart again yeah that's that's Stuart it is Stuart yeah Stuart um so I have a couple of people
on my you know we like John congleton love him got to find people that are work that are that are that I mean man the Eno and lanoir I need to find my Eno and lanoir dude why you just go to Eno and lanoir it's not a bad idea what the
are we talking about here I've got to find my Eno and L one's over there and one's over you got you got you got it's just so you too but yeah it hasn't stopped you before you wrote your biggest hit off off Wi WI all [Music] right