L
ife-changing epiphanies can often
happen when you least expect them.
Back in 2007, Brandon Flowers and
his Las Vegas alt-rock combo The Killers
were following in the footsteps of their
longtime musical idols Oasis, and offering
fans an odds-and-sods album called
Sawdust, comprised of rarities and B-sides.
A single, "Tranquilize," was issued from
the collection, and it featured a cameo from
legendary New York bad boy himself, the
late Lou Reed, who also filmed an accompanying clip for the song. The summit
meeting sent shockwaves through
Flowers. And they're still reverberating
through his latest work -- his second solo
album, The Desired Effect.
Flowers has gotten some great advice
over the years, since forming his group
back in 2001. He's been befriended by usually-standoffish Oasis band leader Noel
Gallagher, who saw him as a kindred songwriting spirit. He just swapped stories
with post-punk veteran Richard Butler,
when the Psychedelic Furs frontman
agreed to star (alongside actress Evan
Rachel Wood) in the video for "Can't Deny
My Love," the kickoff Effect single based on
Nathaniel Hawthorne's Young Goodman
Brown. He's even become pals with that
poshest of pop stars, the Pet Shop Boys'
Neil Tennant, who guested on one of The
Killers' annual Christmas singles ("Joseph,
Better You Than Me") and a new album
track ("I Can Change," which also samples
Bronski Beat's classic "Smalltown Boy").
But hanging out with Reed was on another
lofty level, entirely.
"And it was a big realization for me,"
recalls Flowers, 33. "When we were doing
that video with Lou Reed, he showed up to
the shoot in just his regu \