Flowers later shared his own speech about Springsteen, jokingly labelling him as „a cold caller“
Bruce Springsteen made a surprise appearance at the 2025 Ivor Novello Awards, where he honoured The Killers‘ Brandon Flowers with a touching speech and the Special International Award.
The ceremony took place at the Grosvenor House in London last night (May 22) and celebrated its 70th year, where it saw 22 songwriters and composers collecting awards over 14 categories, with over 70 per cent of winners being first-timers.
At the ceremony, Flowers was presented with the Special International Award, which was delivered to him by The Boss himself, who is in the midst of his UK and European tour. Before handing the award over to the Killers frontman, Springsteen shared a speech about his pal and collaborator.
Springsteen said in his speech: “I haven’t been to Sunderland so I’ve got my voice tonight. The first time I heard The Killers and songs of Brandon Flowers, I was walking past my high school-aged son Evan’s room. I was just passing by, and the song I was listening to through his door just stopped me. I popped my head in and said ‘Who’s that?’, and he said ‘That’s The Killers, pop.’”
“I was standing there, and I heard that classic line from ‘Somebody Told Me’: ‘Well somebody told me you had a boyfriend / Who looked like a girlfriend / That I had in February of last year’ and I said ‘That’s a clever line’. Took me a minute to figure out, and then I said ‘That’s a fucking clever line’”.
“What really synched the whole deal was it was tied to this massive hook. It was like the earworm of all earworms, that from here on in, you’d be singing somewhere in your head for the rest of your life. So for the next week, I found myself going ‘I had a boyfriend then had a girlfriend sometime around February’… I didn’t have the lyrics exactly right, but they melody stayed in my head forever.”
Springsteen continued: “I bought the record, ‘Hot Fuss’, it’s filled with catchy lyrics, enormous hooks. ‘Mr. Brightside’, ‘Somebody Told Me’, ‘All These Things That I’ve Done’, just great, great songs. It came out June 15th, fantastic time to come out because it made it the summer record of all summer records.”
“After that came ‘Sam’s Town’. ‘Sam’s Town’ was a big, big change for Brandon and The Killers. They really went towards heartland music, they had a great record called ‘When You Were Young’ and albums filled with more terrific songs. They came out of Las Vegas, which is a strange place for a band to come from – most bands end up in Las Vegas, they don’t come out of Las Vegas.”
“They had great records all the way, up to the recent ‘Pressure Machine’, which is one of my favourites. They use unique voices in between songs to tell stories about poverty and opioid addiction and domestic abuse and suicidal ideation. It really is a one-of-a-kind record, and has a song ‘Quiet Town’ that i hope one of these days we’ll get to sing together,” Springsteen added.
The Boss concluded: “I’ve been lucky to appear in a video, ‘Dustland’ with Killers and Brandon, and I also shared the stage with them at Madison Square Garden. Brandon has one of the most beautiful, pure voices in all of rock ‘n’ roll, they’re simply one of the best live acts working out there right now. They’ve got that great bass flip that has that touch of electro-pop that gets people dancing. I gotta fuckin’ figure that shit out. Love you Brandon!”
After a short video package, Brandon Flowers walked onstage to receive the award. In his speech, Flowers returned the favour to Springsteen, thanking him: “He has been a true inspiration for me, and he has given me kindness upon kindness for 20 years now. I just want to offer a little Bruce anecdote if you don’t mind.”
“When he’s not baptising us in his rock and roll, or speaking truth to power with that unwavering grace of his, when he’s doing all those things, he’s a cold caller. He calls you with no warning out of the blue and I still get a little bit nervous, but I always pick up the phone. Every time I do, the cynical part of the brain expects there to be some sort of ask at the end of the call, like ‘hey Brandon, there’s a charity event in Jersey, I’d love for the Killers to come play for free’ or ‘It’s my niece’s birthday and she’s a big fan, could you do a little ‘Brightside’ for her on FaceTime?’”
“But it never comes. He’s just being Bruce Springsteen, checking in on his brother Brandon. He doesn’t need to do this for me tonight, so this is something that I will carry with me forever. Thank you.”
Springsteen has been vocal about his admiration for The Killers for several years now. In 2020, he hailed them as “a hell of a band” in a chat with Flowers himself: “Recently when I caught you, it may have been Glastonbury, the band was so good. You guys have developed such an incredible live show. Really something to be proud of.”
A year later, they teamed up on ‘Dustland’, a rework of The Killers’ 2008 track ‘A Dustland Fairytale’, this time featuring Springsteen. Then, in October 2022, Springsteen made a surprise appearance at The Killers’ sold-out Madison Square Garden show, where they performed their collaboration as well as his hits ‘Badlands’ and ‘Born To Run’.
Earlier this year, it was announced by The Killers that the that 2022 encore performance would be made available to fans as part of Record Store Day 2025. It was titled ‘The Killers & Bruce Springsteen Encore At The Garden’, the 12″, and only 5,000 copies were made. Last month, they shared official footage of that same MSG performance to celebrate the 2025 edition of Record Store Day.
The Killers and Springsteen’s 2021 collab ‘Dustland’ scored a four-star review from Mark Beaumont, who wrote for NME: “As the culmination of The Killers’ ‘00s mission to concoct their Great American Epic, it’s almost more about the statement than the song, and Brandon and Bruce joining forces on this Hollywood remake is more about uniting generations finding glory in truck stop tales – at a time when America could do with being reminded why it used to be worth celebrating – than perfecting the “good girls die” crescendo. Of all The Killers’ recent collaborations, it’s the boot that fits them best. Now, though, a co-write really would be the stuff of fairytales.”
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