The Killers’ Brandon Flowers describes new song about gay teen contemplating suicide
“There were kids I grew up with who I didn’t know until years later that they were gay."
Words: Jamie Tabberer; picture: Island Records
Brandon Flowers has teased an upcoming song by The Killers about a gay teenager who contemplates suicide.
The track ‘Terrible Thing’ will be included on the band’s new concept album Pressure Machine, out later this year.
In an interview with Rolling Stone, Flowers revealed that all the songs on the album are inspired by real-life people he knew while living in the Utah town of Nephi in the 90s.
“People kept this stuff close”
“There were kids I grew up with who I didn’t know until years later that they were gay,” said Flowers of the basis for ‘Terrible Thing’.
“It must have just been so hard.”
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“I think the world is moving in a more positive direction and a more inclusive direction, but this was still in the Nineties and people kept this stuff close.”
The Killers frontman, known for hits including ‘Mr. Brightside’ and ‘All These Things That I’ve Done’, added: “I basically took a story that was a scandal in town when I had lived there, and I took some liberties in the third verse and turned it into a murder ballad.
“In a typical pop or rock song, there [are] just two verses. It’s not until you start getting into Springsteen and [John] Prine and stuff that you get to a third or fourth verse. But it helps you flesh out a story.”
Pressure Machine is out on 13 August 2021.
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