IT HAS become one of the most enduring images from an AFL Grand Final, but for The Killers they had no idea it was going to happen.
After Richmond won last year’s Grand Final, captain Jack Riewoldt got on stage with The Killers to belt out the Las Vegas band’s classic Mr Brightside.
The Killers had just performed at the MCG before the big game and were playing a set for celebrating Tigers fans when Riewoldt stepped on stage.
Before the Grand Final, Riewoldt had told the Tigers’ media team that if they won he’d be on stage singing with The Killers.
When the story was relayed to the AFL media team in the final quarter and victory was ensured for Richmond, some calls were made.
The image of Riewoldt on stage with singer Brandon Flowers was shown around the world and was soon trending on social media.
But speaking to news.com.au last week before their final gig of a sold out Australia tour, The Killers had no idea how big a moment they had been part of.
The band performed a Selina’s at Coogee Bay Hotel in front of just several hundreds fans to launch The American Express Music Backers Program, a $1 million investment to support Australia’s music industry.
“It wasn’t planned,” Flowers told news.com.au.
“We can only equate (Riewoldt) to someone who’s a big footballer or basketballer in America, like LeBron James or something.
“So we can kind of wrap our heads around it but we sort of missed all the hoopla because we flew out straight away.”
So how did it come about?
“Right before we went on stage they said this guy wants to come up and sing, and we’re not ‘sure’.”
But the moment shows how big the band’s 2004 hit Mr Brightside has become. It’s almost taken on a life of its own away from the band.
“It’s like happy birthday now,” drummer Ronnie Vannucci Jr joked to news.com.au.
Flowers added: “It’s incredible to watch it happen, because the last time we came to Australia would have been the Battle Born tour to promote our last record.
“When we played that record we had the best shows we’d ever had and When You Were Young was the climax to the evening
“Sometimes Human would be a little bit bigger than Brightside but it was always When You Were Young, (or) Human.
“Then something just happened over the last five years that we don’t really have an explanation for and that song has just grown.”
AUSTRALIA’S INFLUENCE ON THE KILLERS
Despite being “brought to you courtesy of fabulous Las Vegas” as Flowers explains to the crowd at each gig, The Killers were ideal to launch the American Express funding aimed at helping live music in Australia.
Sydney’s Alex Cameron, who co-wrote six songs on the Killers’ latest album Wonderful Wonderful, has supported the band on its Australian tour.
And The Killers have covered classic Aussie bands like INXS and Crowded House along the way.
At the AFL Grand Final, they covered Forgotten Years by Midnight Oil — a song Flowers admits is one he wishes he’d written.
“There’s a lot,” Flowers says when asked what other Australian songs he wished he’d written, like Unguarded Moment by The Church or “any of 20 songs from INXS”.
“Thunderstruck is the best live song ever. We get to play Mr Brightside every night and what that’s like, but Thunderstruck is even bigger. It’s so crazy, it’s so good,” he said.
HOW THE VINES HELPED THE KILLERS BREAKTHROUGH
In the late 90s, the music scene was dominated by nu-metal bands like Limp Bizkit and Korn. For The Killers, it didn’t look like there was a place for them.
Until Sydney band The Vines broke through with Get Free.
The Vines singer Craig Nichols played the song with the Killers at their recent Sydney gig, with Flowers saying how important that song was for the band.
“For bands who had taste like we did we knew that things weren’t in our favour,” Flowers said. “We didn’t sound like what was on the radio.
“Then came this rush of bands, it was perfect.”
Vannucci added: “We thought ‘you’re like us!’.”
Flowers added: “We were all listening to similar music and funnelling it through our demographic or geography or whatever and what we all came up with was all a bit different. What an exciting time.”
MEETING YOUR IDOLS
There’s a well known story from when Flowers was waiting tables in Las Vegas before The Killers had formed.
His idol Morrissey came in for a mushroom pizza and a pot of tea. When the former Smiths singer left, Flowers kept the teapot as a memento.
“I kept about an inch of Earl Grey in it,” Flowers told news.com.au.
“My girlfriend at the time necked it. When I handed it to her she drank it. She looked like a wild dog for a second. She was overtaken by it.
“It made me feel weird about it when I saw her do that.”
So apart from fans potentially taking teapots they’ve used, how do The Killers handle dealing with people wanting a piece of them.
“It’s gone a step further now,” Vannucci tells news.com.au. “There’s a new sort of decorum for the fanatics and it’s got a lot to do with phones.
“You could be eating with your family or your grandmother and these people — some of them — will get out their phone and interrupt you and really get in your circle,
“I don’t think that existed before. It was just a pen and paper.
“And nobody knows how to use their phone. It takes five f**king minutes. So aside from that I f**king love it.”
Vannucci concedes he had bad experiences meeting his idols when younger, like when he approached Ian Mackaye as a teenager.
“It made me feel like a fan and I never did it again,” he says.
Years later Vannucci was working when he approached Stephen Stills when he was getting out of his Cadillac at the valet at Caesars at 3am.
“I said ‘Hey Stephen I’m sorry to bother you, but I’m a musician and I grew up listening to you and all I want to say is thanks for that because your voice and guitar playing and all the bands you’ve played in are legendary’,” Vannucci said.
“He took a drag off his cigarette and said ‘OK’ and flicked it. And I just thought, ah man what a piece of s**t.”
For Flowers the experiences were better. Like the time he got in trouble from his managers trying to approach Danny Elfman when waiting tables.
“He saw me get in trouble from my managers for trying to go to his table,” Flowers said about the composer behind countless movie scores and of course The Simpsons theme.
“And he found out my name and came in the next day and wrote me a note. That was cool.”
The Killers played at Selina’s at Coogee Bay Hotel as part of the American Express Music Backers Program.
For more information on the $1 million grants program to support live music go here
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