Brandon Flowers

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Brandon Flowers
Background information
Birth name	Brandon Richard Flowers
Born	June 21, 1981 (age 25)
Origin	Las Vegas, Nevada
Genre(s)	Synth rock Indie rock
Occupation(s)	Musician
Instrument(s)	Keyboard Vocals Bass
Years active	2001-present
Associated acts	The Killers

Brandon Flowers (born June 21, 1981) is the vocalist and keyboardist in the American synth rock band The Killers.

[edit] Biography

Flowers was born on June 21, 1981 in Las Vegas, Nevada to parents of partial Scottish and Lithuanian ancestry^[1] and later raised in Nephi, Utah. Brandon's father worked as a grocer and as a bathroom fitter in Nephi, fitting marble surrounds. He then took a job as a bellman at the Gold Coast, the same hotel Brandon worked at, when he moved back to Vegas. He is due to retire this year. His mother was a homemaker. He attributes his fashion sense to his doting sisters.^[2]

On August 2, 2005, Brandon married longtime girlfriend Elizabeth Dean, in a private ceremony in Hawaii.^[3] Flowers met his future wife at the Las Vegas Urban Outfitters where she worked before The Killers achieved any major success. She is now a primary school teacher. The two dated for approximately four years before she converted to Mormonism and the two married.

[edit] Controversies

Although an active Mormon himself, in the past Flowers has smoked cigarettes and still drinks alcohol, behavior prohibited by the LDS church's health code. However, he has said that he belongs to a "very tolerant gathering."^[4] In an August 2005 interview with Rolling Stone, Flowers mentioned trying to cut back, and as of November 22, 2006, Brandon gave up smoking by using a chamomile concoction prescribed by a German doctor (Flowers says it's good for his voice).^{[citation needed]}

The Killers, as a band, are known for suggestive homoerotic play between band members onstage, as well as for having started out playing gigs in drag clubs in Vegas. The lyrics to "Andy, You're a Star", "Where the White Boys Dance" and the hit-single "Somebody Told Me" contain a sexual ambiguity. Flowers is viewed by some as a famous example of metrosexuality, as evidenced by his careful attention to fashion, grooming and even makeup.^[2] In response to such speculation, Flowers said that "Andy, You're a Star" was "free for people to interpret as their own," in a Genre 2005 interview. This contradicts an earlier statement made in a QLas Vegas interview during 2004, wherein he claimed it was about a crush he himself had formed on a male athlete while attending high school.^[5] When asked about the male athlete in high school, he responded that he is "very aware of [his] sexuality" and that he does like women.^[6] Flowers has also stated that some confusion over his sexual identity is "not a bad thing,"^[2] but did say "I'm not gay".^[7]

Flowers is known for creating feuds between The Killers and other bands, such as The Bravery, Fall Out Boy, and Panic! at the Disco, most notably suggesting that emo music was 'dangerous.' In July of 2006, however, he apologized to the bands in an interview to AOL Music, saying "I'd like to take it all back. These people are just doing what they want to do, just like I am...I'm actually a nice person and I love people. I just am opinionated, and sometimes jealous. It's not something I'm proud of." Frontmen Sam Endicott (of The Bravery) and Pete Wentz (of Fall Out Boy) reportedly received, and accepted, telephone apologies prior to the article's publication. With regard to the criticisms levelled at Panic! at the Disco, Flowers said "I don't even know what their music's like, or if I would even like it...That made me feel even worse, to think they could have been fans of ours and I hurt their feelings. That's just stupid."^[8][9] Flowers has also criticized Green Day for what he sees as their calculated anti-Americanism. Specifically, Flowers found a video of Green Day performing the song 'American Idiot' in the UK distasteful. The taping of the concert, featured on Bullet in a Bible, shows thousands of Europeans singing along to 'American Idiot.' He said, "I just thought it was really cheap. To go to a place like England or Germany and sing that song - those kids aren't taking it the same way that he meant it."

[edit] Trivia

• He won NME magazine awards in 2005 for "Best Dressed" and "Sexiest Man."^[10]
• Used a Quija board and gained a fear of the number 621. This number also happens to be his birthday, June 21. He is convinced he is going to die on that day. He said: "It's just stupid, it is not a way to live. Once I had to fly to Glastonbury on my birthday, that was a real mess."
• According to the Las Vegas Review-Journal, his parents have always supported his decision to become a rock singer, and were often the only people in the audience at the Killers' first performances in the band's early days.^{[citation needed]}
• The Cars are a major influence for him after he listened to an old album that belonged to his older brother.^{[citation needed]}
• Favorite song on the Hot Fuss album is "Jenny Was a Friend of Mine."^{[citation needed]}
• His favorite classical musician is the composer Bach.^{[citation needed]}
• Enjoys eating Twinkies and drinking Coca Cola.^{[citation needed]}
• His favourite biscuit is a Custard Cream.
• Plays Bass guitar live in concerts for the song "For Reasons Unknown"

[edit] External links

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to:

Brandon Flowers

• Brandon Flowers at the Internet Movie Database
• Brandon Flowers at the Notable Names Database
• "Former BYU's student's brother is lead singer of the Killers", interview by Erin Pierce and Dan Monson about Flowers visiting his brother at college, from The Daily Universe
• "The Music That Changed My Life: Brandon Flowers", Interview by Kyle Anderson, from Spin magazine
• Songs of Praise, Craig McLean talks to the Killers' singer about resisting temptation, from The Observer
• Rufus Wainwright/Brandon Flowers Fan Community
• The Killers official site, from Island Records
• The Killers official site (U.K.), from the Vertigo label

[edit] References