Brandon Flowers, the frontman of The Killers, recently spoke to Zane Lowe on his Apple Music Radio show about their new greatest hits album, ‘Rebel Diamonds’, which was released on December 8.
During the show, Flowers shared the story of how he met Noel Gallagher, the former member of Oasis, in 2005 while on the NME tour. The tour also featured performances by Bloc Party, The Futureheads, Franz Ferdinand, and Kaiser Chiefs. Flowers also spoke about the impact Oasis had on him.
Lowe brought up the moment in which Killers drummer Ronnie Vannucci Jr. joined the band, adding that great drummers are the difference between great songs and careers.
“It’s true”, said Flowers. “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 and I did not quite appreciate what everybody needed to bring to the table for us to be a success and for to us to have staying power.”
He then went on to say that someone who knew the importance of a great drummer was “someone like Noel Gallagher” and shared the moment when he met Gallagher.
“We were doing the NME tour and we were playing at Brixton Academy or something and we heard that Noel’s gonna come to show, he was probably there to see Franz Ferdinand or Kaiser or somebody but he’s coming and after the gig, we finish and here he comes, you know, This is one of my heroes, he walks in the door and I am just so excited,” began Flowers.
He continued:
“He walks straight past me, straight to Vannucci and it was just, I was like oh shit, we better keep an eye on what Oasis’ drummer is doing, but yeah he was a huge fan of him right away.”
Lowe went on to discuss how during their early shows, it felt like everyone was watching Vannucci Jr. more that they were watching Flowers on stage. “It felt like he was stage-ready and you were finding your feet,” the Apple Music DJ said.
“He was definitely more seasoned,” said Flowers. “He’d been in a lot more bands and toured and this was my first real band and you know, people ask me why I sing the way I do and it’s because he’s on the drums. I gotta keep up with him.”
Elsewhere in the interview, Flowers explained the impact that seeing Oasis had on him before creating The Killers.
“I’ve talked about seeing Oasis at the Hard Rock in Vegas as a joint and I wasn’t a huge fan yet, I became a big fan later but I got in just in time to see the encore and I saw ‘Don’t Look Back In Anger’ and up until that point I was all synth-pop, and I have never experienced anything like that.”
