Brandon Flowers Says The Killers' New Album Is Inspired by His Wife's Mental Illness

The Killers’ much-anticipated sixth album “Wonderful Wonderful” comes out September 22, and in an interview with NME, frontman Brandon Flowers revealed that part of the album is inspired by his wife’s battle with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

• What is PTSD?

“My wife has PTSD. She has a version called Complex PTSD. It’s when a person has had multiple traumatic experiences,” he said. “Her whole life, she’s been covering it, pretending it isn’t there. For whatever reason, in her 30s, it’s decided to really manifest itself and that’s what I’m going through with my family.”

Those who have PTSD know that covering up trauma doesn’t make it go away — and that it’s not uncommon for trauma from your past to affect you later in life. Flowers said getting into counseling and getting a name for what was going on helped his wife.

“Usually I feel protective of her but I decided to take it head-on,” he said. “Now she submits to it – that doesn’t mean that she’s gonna let it beat her, but rather that she’s gonna finally acknowledge that it’s there and promise to break this cycle.”

He said writing the track “Rut” — inspired by his wife’s journey — helped him better understand what his wife was going through.

“It bonded me and Tana in a way that I never foresaw,” he said. “It helped me to understand her better and be more compassionate.”

Flowers also revealed this month that back in 2005, he had to cancel solo shows because his wife was dealing with suicidal thoughts.

“I canceled that tour because she got to a point – this is really hard for me to even say the words – but she was having suicidal thoughts. That was as bad as it got,” he said. 

We’re so thankful to Flowers to being open about his wife’s struggles, and will keep his family in our thoughts.