The killers year by ronnie

Hot press 12-14-05

Ronnie Vannucci of The Killers
(In conversation with Stuart Clark)

The best thing about this year - in fact the best thing about our whole career - was doing Live 8. We arrived around 2 o'clock and had to walk the last bit of the way to Hyde Park because they'd closed down the streets. It was amazing watching all these actors and musicians we'd grown up with and idolised walking around. There was no rock star bullshit, just people getting up there and making some noise for a good cause.

It's hard picking out individual people but meeting David Gilmour from Pink Floyd was definitely "a moment". Seeing them after all these years with Roger Waters, wow, that was a thrill.

Another highlight was getting to play with U2 on the Vertigo tour. You don't know what to expect from an opening set but their fans gave us a really good reception. There was a bizarre show we did with them in Poland. We can't play if our keyboards get wet, so when it started raining they put us under this tiny canopy, which only just covered the drumkit. Not being able to move more than a meter in any direction made it feel like we were gigging in a bar. Brandon was really freaked out about getting electrocuted. Dying was good for 2-Pac's career but we'd rather sell records the conventional way!

Headlining the Oxegen Main Stage was great because, in terms of Europe, that's where things had started for us a year before in one of the small tents. We'll look back at it in the future and think, "That's where Chapter 1 of The Killers ended." Not to have done it with Hot Fuss would've been a real shame.

The ideas we have for the second record are kind of all over the place, but no matter what, it's going to sound like us! One of the songs we're excited about is "All The Pretty Faces", which developed from three notes that Dave started to play on the guitar one day. It's darker and more immoderate.