The Killers - Imploding the Mirage (August 21, 2020) Album • Page 16

How have The Killers responded?
A legal representative for The Killers told BBC News: "Any allegations of inappropriate behaviour by anyone on The Killers touring team are taken extremely seriously by the band and their management.

"This person's story is appalling and, while The Killers do not have the same touring crew in 2020 that they had earlier in their career, they will be conducting a thorough investigation into past and present tour staff.

"Their legal team will be reaching out to this person for more information and clarity on the alleged incidents as detailed, as well as to the audio vendor who provided crew for the tour.

"The band are astonished and shocked by these claims. The behaviour attributed to them and their crew is unrecognisable and in direct opposition to the principles with which they run their workplace."



nice to at least see that their team is not trying to immediately deny involvement or deny that the situation happened.

 

So it sounds like this just involves touring members? Or were any of the core group members involved?

 

The statements have been a bit contradictory. At first she said the only person who wasn't involved in the band was Brandon, but that he had knowledge. Then she went on to insinuate that by band members, she meant touring band, not the core members.

So, it seems that touring members/crew are implicated in the actions, but she indicates that the Killers (core, four members) had knowledge of it-- which the Killers have now denied, but are investigating.

 

My standing issue with what’s been disclosed thus far, is I have an extremely hard time believing Brandon/Ronnie/Mark/Dave had no idea that this was going on. I fucking love the killers, but I don’t picture this investigation convincingly absolving the four of them from all wrongdoing (knowing and not stopping this is still wrong). This is a shit show and these stories are some of the worst I’ve heard. Blaming it on touring members while convenient doesn’t feel right.

 

This is all really gross and disappointing. None of this is OK or redeemable.

Hate to say this too but that account really feels like a more accurate portrayal of the "rock star groupie" bs that we've all been conditioned to romanticize for artists on classic rock stations. Idk, I just feel really gross by all this.

 

I think it's plausible that Brandon and Ronnie didn't have knowledge, as they were both in their own bus and intentionally separating themselves from the "partying" on the other. And if the person's claims that Tana and Brandon's babies were around are true, I can't imagine he's hanging around to listen to gross stories of what went down the night before.

Not defending what I definitely don't know, but just saying I can understand if he or (to a lesser extent) Ronnie had no idea.

I have a much harder time believing that Mark and Dave didn't know, as the story directly implicates their bus-- but yeah, we'll see how this all shakes out.

 

Idk man. Hard time believing while the entire crew is razzing a band member about making out with woman after she gave crew members blow jobs during a train that Brandon or Ronnie didn’t hear a whisper.

I’m with most, Brandon and Ronnie are legitimately a couple of my favorite musicians and while I’d love for them to be “innocent” but they’ve got a lot of explaining to do.

Agree that we’ll see how it shakes out.

 

I hate sounding like I'm trying to defend or make excuses, maybe it's just me trying to make peace in my mind, but I'm not sure it's fair to make the jump and assume that Brandon and Ronnie had direct knowledge of the sexual activities (and committed rapes) of their crew. I would be shocked if these guys are just chilling backstage with their crew, they are secluded on a tour bus or hiding in their dressing room until they're on stage. At the end of the day, they are the employers and they enabled this environment, hands down. But I think it's a jump to say "there's no way so and so didn't know".

 

For sure. My understanding with the band and their crew, however, is that they've always been pretty cliquey. It's pretty well documented in their biography by Mark Beaumont.

I actually went on Brandon and Ronnie's tour bus in 2012-- there were about three other people on board (including the bus driver). Ronnie was playing guitar, another guy had a beer. That's it. Just a couple people hanging out a few hours after a show. I remember thinking how "un-rockstar" it was at the time. Not that this instance is indicative of any and every thing that's ever happened on their tours, but it definitely reinforced my opinion of how I thought Brandon and Ronnie were on the road, and how broken up the whole band and crew were from one another.

I'd met Dave briefly just before going on, as well, but he went right to the other bus.

 

Comes down to perspective. I think it's more likely they did than didn't. You're certainly entitled to not feel that way. I've been careful to leave a tinge of uncertainty to whether they all knew or didn't ("virtually no way"), I just find more often in situations like this the higher ups are aware of wrongdoing.

No one is playing judge and executioner here even if they say they 100% believe they were aware. I'm just gonna err on the side of not giving the benefit of the doubt to potential abusers or enablers and I'm going to for sure be skeptical that the band is innocent. If a legitimate investigation comes out that absolves the core four, I would absolutely be relieved. I've loved this band a long time, not gonna lie. I'm just seeing a lot of "oh thats their touring band or old crew" as though that makes it ok (not as much here, elsewhere online) and I'm just not about it.

 

Appreciate the insight. Like I said in my last post, I'd love for Ronnie and Brandon (in particular) to be cleared of wrong doing.

Can't shake what a despicable act occurred and currently have a hard time buying into anyones innocence. Ultimately this is less about my favorite band and more about the wave of destruction thats been left in the wake. Really can't shake what happened to the woman that was left in that dressing room.

 

This is where I'm at. The big picture of cause & effect is impossible to ignore. Can't rock out to their tunes knowing that the band's existence & popularity led to this type of treatment of a human.

 

Just read this. Wait, so people want to blackball the band and never listen to them again despite:

1) Non-band members are accused of this bad behavior
2) Zero proof that the actual band members knew anything about this, and they were by all accounts not in the "partying group"

Wow.

Without more information or facts I think that is really, really wrong. Maybe let's wait for an official response before jumping to conclusions?

I'm all for blaming the guys who had sex with the near passed-out girl. Let's pile on there.

But because his name is "Brandon Flowers" rather than "Roadie X", he is going to get lumped in with those bad actors? Very unfair. Especially considering he is supposedly a very good and clean guy by all accounts. If anything the Tour Manager is more the CEO of the tour than the singer.

What about all the other males on the tour who also did not participate and may or may not have had any idea this was occurring? Are they at fault too? Or just Flowers and Ronnie "because they are famous?"

This is about being a good human being and behaving the right way, not about who is the most famous person around that can be punished.

Let's blame the right people please.

 

By pretty much every account out there going back to old articles about there being two separate buses, Dave was in the "partying group." Dave was also "in the band."

 

I'm definitely at risk of rushing to judgement, but it's due to seeing how so many of these situations have played out and also being a firm believer that the culture/chemistry of any group of people is pretty palpable. What I mean by that is if you are in a situation where you are working along side other people, you pick up pretty quickly what they're about and what type of behavior is tolerated. This has been true in my own personal experience in office environments, restaurant jobs, sports teams, and other situations in between.

Given the looseness of the music industry & the various characters it attracts, this has to be even easier to pick up on. Which leads me to think that it would be nearly impossible for the core members of the band to tour with a crew that is capable of this stuff and not hear SOME rumblings about it. I mean, you're basically living with these people for a few months. You don't think they'd overhear conversations about the illicit stuff the others got into the night before just by standing in line for the catering table before a show or using the backstage restrooms at the venue?

 

So their LD was made aware of allegations two years and didn’t present them to the band? That seems really strange given his own admission that the allegations are extremely heinous.

 

Where does it say that?

 

sigh

 

The tweet you posted?

It says Sara showed him in 2018 and Steven says “I specifically told Sara I wasn’t aware of anything like this”.

 

It doesn’t say he didn’t bring this to the attention of the band.

 

It does not say that, correct. That’s part of my point:

Either he didn’t tell them, or he did and The Killers did know about the alleged raping.

This doesn’t seem to track with their narrative thus far since Dave was “shocked”. The Killers statement says they are “astonished and shocked” implying this is the first they’ve heard.

So I’m curious to which it is. Did their Lighting Director neglect passing on allegations of rape or did the band ignore it? With what’s been said I don’t see how it’s not one or the other.

 

Or or or or people can make their own judgements about when a situation feels too off based on their own line and choose to check out on listening to any more music from an artist who no longer makes them feel the same way. There’s nothing to stop someone from listening to the band again if their feelings change back.

 

Update:
'No corroboration' of assault on Killers tour

Cherrie's response to their response:

 

While still some obvious concerns remain, that’s generally a relief.