The Killers have a rumour they’d like to clear up. “I’ve never had a threesome with Ronnie and another girl’ says cauliflower- haired guitarist Dave Keuning, indignantly. “I’d like to sort this out right now. People have made a lot of things up. Our girlfriends are reading crazy stories. I’ve been accused of stuff that never happened, all because of rumours on the goddamn internet.”
With a second album platinum, Sam’s Town, to their name, worldwide stadium tours and a headlining slot at Glastonbury, 2007 was a big year for The Killers. Little wonder they have become the preserve of gossip columns.
It’s early afternoon in a salubrious, groupie-free hotel in New York’s meatpacking district, and Keuning and his band mates- front man Brandon Flowers, Vannucci and bassist Mark Stoermer, who greet each enquiry with a look best employed for the discovery of a bad odour.
This week, the Vegas four piece are on the East coast to shoot the video for single Tranquilize, the recent collaboration with Lou Reed, from B-sides, covers and rarities compilation Sawdust. As they sit around Q’s Dictaphone, an audience with New York’s very own Prince of Darkness seems preferable to a Q readership grilling.
“We understand there questions are going to be a little weird right? Says Flowers nervously. But of Course…

Freddie Mercury, ZZ Top, the guy from sparks… who has the best facial hair in rock?
Ronnie: I never got into Sparks, but I got into ZZ Top. They blow everyone out of the water with their beards.
Mark: Our Facial hair is more about Laziness than style
Dave: I’ve never gone for it. I like to be clean faced. I’m not a follower, I’m my own man. I shave every other day.
Brandon: The beard has gone out of rock recently. I’m going for the guy in (North Carolina psychedelic rock band) Valient Thorr. The singer has great facial hair.

Brandon, Mormons are famous for multiple marriages. Is your wife the first of many? If so, can I be next?
BF: Can I pass on this one? Multiple marriages have been outlawed for over 100 years. The beliefs haven’t changed it was a decision based on circumstance. Men were getting killed during the war. They had wives and so a lot of women were being left without husbands. Multiple marriages are an outdated notion.

The Bravery and Fall Out Boy. Why do you only pick on bands that are weedier than you?
BF: What's Weedier? Less tough? Tell him the next band we're going for is Rammstein
DK: Not Queens Of The Stone Age though. Nobody messes with Josh.
BF: Those disputes ended up being in bad taste in so many ways. It wasn't a good look for us. It also associated us with bands we didn't want to be associated with. We've moved on.

Brandon, have you ever worn an outfit and thought “that’s a bit too much”?
BF: [Laughs] Yeah, I recently wore this gold suit, and the pants took it over the edge. They were gold and they didn’t have any pockets in my butt. I looked like a figure skater. I didn’t plan it that way. I had the specifically made for last summer’s festivals, but I’ve since swapped the pants for a black pair. In fact, the guy who made the suit actually made Elvis’s gold suits. We went to Graceland and I saw a picture of Elvis in the entire gold outfit. Then I walked down the hall and saw a picture of Elvis with just the Gold jacked and the black pants. I think he had the same revelation. It was a very expensive suit. I’m not telling you how much.

Were you scared when you met old grumpy bollocks, Lou Reed?
DK: [Laughs] Old grumpy bollocks. I’ll remember that when I see him tomorrow.
BF: You tend to be respectful. It’s a respectful fear. It took a day to break the ice with him. The second day of recording was a lot nicer than the first – on the first day we were all really stiff. It’s funny because you refer to him as “Lou Reed” and not “Lou”. I remember somebody came into the studio. They could only stay in the room with him for two minutes. They Lefts saying “Lou Reed’s really freaking me out.”
DK: [laughs] He’s got his own vibe. We asked him to work on Tranquilize with us. We sent him the track and he said yes. It was a real honour, but we’ve learnt that if you try asking, it works out sometimes.

Tim Burton directed the video for Bones. What’s your favourite of his films?
MS: Ed Wood is one of my favourites. It was strange working with him. We just asked him to direct the video and he said yes. He’s a really nice guy and I think he likes the band.
RV: Big Fish. It reminds me of my dad.
BF: I can’t help it, I love Sleepy Hollow. It’s a great film. We can’t wait for the Sweeny Todd film he’s making.

Even though it was about America, your second album didn’t go down as well as it did in England. Why?
MS: [moodily] well, it went platinum. I don’t think many bands do that these days. And if you were at our shows you would’ve seen that they were all sold out and people were singing along to the songs. You must be misinformed.
RV: People are more excited in England, but that’s just the way it is. People have a different appreciation for music. Our first tours were in England. There are a lot of roots there. It’s worked out well for us over there.

Two female friends of mine met you after a show in England. They claimed you kicked them out if your hotel at 11pm because you wanted to get to sleep. What’s the story?
DK: Not True! First of all, that scenario is impossible because at 11 o’clock we were probably still playing somewhere. Its not our bedtime at 11 [laughs] either that or they weren’t good enough. We probably didn’t like what we saw.

You’ve covered Dire Straits… Where do I start?
RV: We covered it because it’s a great song – Brandon was really into it. The original idea was to do the song with Johnny Borrell though he got really sick and couldn’t do it.
BF: He reminds me a lot of Mark Knopfler
RV: I told him to take his medicine and eat right but he didn’t. But I think we pulled it off pretty good. We’re always keeping in touch with other bands that we meet on the today but we usually keep it to a high five or a slap on the add because we’re so busy.
BF: We’re not overly anxious about Dire Straits though. We’re not ashamed of covering Romeo and Juliet, either. It ones of the finest songs ever. Brilliant melodies.
DK: I can do the Money for Nothing riff.

If you could go to dinner with anyone dead or alive, who would it be and why?
RV: Marilyn Monroe, because I’d want to talk her out of it. Or Jack Nicholson. I think he’s one of the best actors in the world. I don’t think he’d be as tough in person as out on the screen.
DK: I’m going for Robert Smith – I reckon he’d be a good conversationalist.
BF: Elvis. It would be great to sit down and eat some of the amazing meals he liked. I bought an Elvis cookbook recently and my wife’s going to cook it up. For the next record I’m going to be a hunk of burning love.

Which of you looks best in women’s clothing?
BF: We wore geisha clothes in the video for Read My Mind. It was weird, because we had beards. Mark Looked like a samurai, but Dave probably looked the best because he didn’t have any facial hair. We’ve never had a proper competition though.

Brandon, is it me, or have you got Earl from My name is earl on drums?
BF: There were points where Jason Lee’s friends even talked to Ronnie thinking it was him.
DK: He did look a lot like Jason Lee though. It was noticeable at award shows – people thought he was Jason Leed and would call out to him. Then stupid photographer would take his picture and we’d be like, “yeah, we’re friends with Jason Lee.’

Dave, you recently name-checked Metallica in Q. What’s the most metal thing about The Killers?
DK: Name-check? God these English terms. Well, our most metal song is ‘All The Pretty Faces’ on Sawdust. It’s pretty metal, I guess, but we can do all sorts of styles. [Q mentions Dave’s penchant for leather waistcoat]. That’s a part of who I am. When you’re in eighth grade you’re into AC/DC and Metallica. And any guitarist who says they weren’t is fucking lying. I do have some Judas priest. I used to play Ram It Down in my car.

You’re a big fan of English music, but where do you stand on the cuisine?
RV: [laughs] Maybe 20 or 30 years ago it was just bread and water. Now you’ve got everything – there are some great free range meats to rival the USA.
MS: I’ve actually picked up mushrooms, baked beans and tomatoes with my breakfast which was nice. You can’t get that In America. And we’re big fans of Pret A Manger.
RV: We’re hoping to open up our own branch of Pret over here.

Dave, the last time you spoke to Q you said you wanted to clone you cat. How’s that coming along?
DK: Well, I loved my cat. I haven’t reincarnated it yet, and I’m not sure I’m going to get round to it. What was her name? I’m not going to answer that…
BF: [laughs] Smokey.
DK: [Sighs] It was a big, grey, friendly cat. I have not met another organism that was friendlier. Period. It died on thanksgiving ’95 when some asshole ran it over.

Brandon: the American Morrisey or the American neil Tennant. Which one would you rather be?
DK: Oh come on that’s a no brainer!
BF: Is it? [laughs] I don’t know. I think I’m a combination. I’m part of each of them. My torso is probably more Morrisey and my forearm is Neil Tennants. Oh, and my other arm is Robert Smith. It’s a terminator amalgamation of different people.
DK: I’d love to have the hands of Hedndrix. I’m pretty comfortable with my body.

You were a bit quiet at Glastonbury. What happened to the sound?
MS: That wasn’t down to us. Apparently there’s more of a limit for the headlining bands than anyone else. There’s one guy who lives on a hill and complains about the noise every year. We noticed that the atmosphere was pretty low for a British festival crowd. We didn’t find out why until afterwards.
RV: It wasn’t the best feeling in the world, when your playing in that atmosphere, it’s like playing in mud. Like everybody else was!

You’ve done Christmas singles for the last 2 years. Why?
BF: It all started with a phone call. Bono had his red campaign and he asked us if we would like to do something. We thought that writing songs was our thing, and got into the Christmas spirit of giving. It worked out great last year so maybe it can become a tradition.
DK: We want to try different styles of music, like Elvis. He was making three or four albums a year and using all these different styles.
RV: we like giving presents to people. For a couple of years we’ve been asked to give to charity by putting our name on clothing. It didn’t feel right to do that, so we thought it would be better to make a single to the cause.
MS: The point is to be a bit cheesy. We don’t want to take it too seriously. It’s for fun.

Brandon, what was the best tip you received when you worked as a bellboy back in the day?
BF: We used to get pimps going to the hotels a lot. They would promise a good tip as you loaded the car. They never would. Pimps and gypsies, terrible tippers.

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