Glastonbury 2019: The Killers frontman Brandon Flowers pays emotional tribute to mother

‘There isn’t a grave deep enough, there isn’t a grave dark enough to keep her light out of my life’

The Killers frontman Brandon Flowers dedicated an emotional performance of ”A Dustland Fairytale” to his late mother, as part of the band’s headline performance at Glastonbury.

“We wrote this next song a million miles from here,” he said. “We’re a long way from home tonight. But you know, home isn’t always a place. Home is a person. Looking back at my childhood home was my mother. And her light went out too soon.” Jean Flowers, his mother, died of cancer in 2010, at the age of 64.

“There isn’t a grave deep enough, there isn’t a grave dark enough to keep her light out of my life,” he added.

“A Dustland Fairytale” was the fourth single released from the band’s 2008 album Day & Age. The song’s lyrics focus explicitly on Flowers’s parents, with the singer’s mother being referred to as “Cinderella” and his father being called a “slick chrome American prince”.

The Independent’s Jazz Monroe wrote of the set: “The Killers are now so famous that – despite a gargantuan casual listenership and enduring dominion over party playlists and karaoke booths – few people really have the energy to love or hate them. As the packed crowd poured out, they had the sated looks of the entertained.”

“Some sets are made for the history books; this one was happy to put a smile on your face, if only for one night.”