Portal:Utah/Selected biography/11

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

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

Flowers was born in Las Vegas, Nevada and later raised in Nephi, Utah. In Nephi, he claims he was the only Smiths fan. Since Nephi was a little farm town of just 2,000 people, football was everything as Brandon played golf and listened to Elton John and The Cars. He grew up a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints with four older sisters and an older brother. He begged his parents to return to Las Vegas and finally did at the age of fifteen to live with his aunt and attend Chaparral High School.

While listening to the radio in his car after his very first college class, Flowers heard the song "Changes" by David Bowie. He fell in love with the piece and realized he wanted to be part of the music industry. Teaching himself keyboards, he passed on college to take a job as a caddy at a private golf course, where he encountered a fellow music fan who is also a keyboard player. Together they formed the first workings of the band that would become Blush Response. Brandon began writing and recording original tunes with his band. The endeavor was short-lived, however, when the band booted Flowers in 2001 because he refused to move with the rest of them to Los Angeles, California.

After being dumped by Blush Response, Brandon worked as a bellhop at Gold Coast Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas. The bellhop job paid enough for him to buy CDs, a keyboard, and a 4-track recorder. After answering a "Musicians Wanted" ad in the Las Vegas Weekly with a guitarist looking for a vocalist in order to form a band, he hit it off with his new bandmate, Dave Keuning, in late 2001. The Killers were spawned shortly thereafter. By 2002, Ronnie Vannucci became the drummer and Mark Stoermer had become the bassist.

They played some of their early gigs at a gay drag club, called Tramps, in Las Vegas. The name "The Killers" came about when the band was watching New Order's music video for "Crystal," in which New Order was a fictitious band of perfecto called "The Killers." Flowers was inspired and felt the desire to be as perfect as (and ultimately becoming) "The Killers."