As bad as the world is right now, at least we can console ourselves with the fact that Brandon Flowers is not an international diplomat. During a recent Killers concert in Georgia, Flowers invited a Russian on stage to play drums. When some of the crowd started booing (as they might, what with Russia having invaded in 2008 and now occupying a fifth of Georgia), Flowers doubled down in the most ham-fisted way possible. “You can’t recognise if someone’s your brother?” he asked the crowd. “He’s not your brother? … I don’t want it to turn ugly.” Much of the audience reportedly walked out, which forced the Killers to tweet a statement that began with the line: “Good people of Georgia, it was never our intention to offend anyone!”
But hey, this is nothing new. Since pop music began, pop stars have waded into complicated political issues in the mistaken belief that they can somehow solve everything with their broad platitudes and their nice hair. Here are some more acts with whom the Killers will now forever be associated.
