The Killers upset the audience against themselves during a performance. At the concert in Batumi, Georgia (August 15), the band brought a fan on stage for a joint performance. He turned out to be a Russian citizen, which didn’t go down well with the audience. The Killers then apologized for the action.
The Killers: “It wasn’t our intention to offend anyone”
For the song “For Reasons Unknown”, the band led by Brandon Flowers brought a fan onto the stage to play the drums as a guest. Flowers introduced the young man by saying, “We don’t know the etiquette in this country, but this guy is Russian. Are you okay with a Russian being up here?” The Killers responded with a frenzy of whistling. Some spectators even left the location in protest. Attempts at mediation by Flowers, in which he referred to all The Killer fans as “brothers and sisters,” failed to improve sentiment either.
Political tensions have existed between Russia and Georgia for a long time. These reached a new level in 2008 after Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered a partial invasion of Georgia. To date, 20 percent of the country is occupied by Russia. Since the beginning of the Ukraine war in February 2022, Georgia has also become the destination of many Russian exiles who, among other things, want to avoid being drafted into the military. Due to the recent and also older history, these are not necessarily popular guests in the state on the Caucasus.
That same evening, The Killers apologized to the Georgian audience on their X (formerly Twitter) profile. “Good people of Georgia, it was not our intention to offend anyone,” the post reads. “We have a long tradition of inviting people to play the drums and for us on stage it seemed like the crowd initially approved of the guest to play with us tonight. We understand that a comment referring to all Killers fans as ‘brothers and sisters’ could be misconstrued. We didn’t mean to upset anyone and we apologize for that. We stand by your side and hope to come back soon.”
The next stop for The Killers will be Lovestream Festival in Bratislava, Slovakia on August 18th.