Interview Magazine often puts artists together for a chat, and the result is usually a fascinating conversation. Their most recent pairing is Phoebe Bridgers and The Killers’ Brandon Flowers, the latter of whom humbled himself and admitted he was “just kind of a sh*t” early in his career.
At one point in the interview, Flowers noted, “I used to be — what would the word be — I was just kind of a sh*t. When we first started, I used to trash talk a lot of people.” Towards the end of the conversation, Bridgers circled back to that point and asked him to elaborate. He explained that he loved Oasis growing up, and since the Gallagher brothers are famously confrontational, he worked that into his persona early in his career, saying:
“Oh, I talked about other bands. I grew up idolizing Oasis, and they wrote great songs, but they were also just big sh*t-talkers. For some reason, I thought to gain respect that was part of the territory. And that’s not who I am at all, but there were a few people I ended up calling and apologizing to later on. Then there are still people that I said things about, and I still carry it with me. I still need to apologize to them. I did it to John Mayer.”
He then described the apology, which happened when the two happened to be in the same Los Angeles restaurant:
“I was at a restaurant in LA, and he comes and sits at a table right near us, and you just feel so bad. I walked up to the table, and he was in the middle of a circle. It wasn’t a square table — he was in between people, so I couldn’t just talk to him. I just addressed the whole table, and I was like, ‘I said this about John, and I regret it, man, and I’m sorry.’ He was really gracious about it. The world doesn’t need more negativity.”
In an April 2005 Rolling Stone interview, Flowers was asked, “If you went to Hell, what song would be playing over and over?” He responded, “What song do I hate? I think ‘Daughters,’ by John Mayer, would be a good candidate. I don’t know why he bugs me so bad. ” A few months later, in an August 2005 column for Esquire, Mayer addressed Flowers’ then-disdain of him, taking the high road and writing, “The Killers’ lead singer doesn’t like me, but he can eat it. I think he has some great tunes.”
Read Flowers and Bridgers’ full conversation here.
