How Brandon Flowers made peace with his younger self in The Man

14 June 2024, 16:14

The Killers - The Man

"I put a lot of negativity out there", admits the Killers frontman.

The Killers released their single The Man on 14th June 2017 and it was the lead single from their fifth studio album Wonderful, Wonderful.

The track marked the Las Vegas band's official comeback since 2012's Battle Born, so Brandon Flowers and co didn't pull any punches.

The song is unmistakeable, with Flowers playing the proud male peacock, but who and what is it inspired by?

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Who is The Killers' The Man inspired by?

The artwork might feature Brandon Flowers' son Henry on the artwork, but the song was inspired by the frontman himself and his somewhat arrogant attitude in the band's early years. The most famous example of this was when Flowers laid into the US band The Bravery, who he claimed were Killers copyists, adding "I've heard that the keyboard parts are all pre-programmed, and that singer can't reach the high notes."

Flowers told Radio X in 2017: "When we first started I definitely thought that I was God's gift. That pretty much eroded away really quickly."

Asked if he still felt that way now, he replied: "No, but it was nice to go back and inhabit that person, and I had to do that to really figure out why I am who I am now".

Who is the mysterious character on the cover of the new Killers The Man single?

He elaborated on the theme to the NME: "Around about the time that The Killers started I guess... that's where The Man harkens back to, and years after as well."

He added: "I think a good chunk of [the new] album is making peace with that. I've been cleaning it up for a long time. I don't think that was really a great representation, an honest representation of who I am.

"It came from a place of insecurity and I would just puff my chest out and say things and put a lot of negativity out there. I basically came to regret that and I'm sure a lot of people can identify with that."