my single is dropping

Bruce Springsteen Revives ‘Dustland’ With the Killers

Photo: Island Records

Some musical collaborations are born of friendship, others, a single text message, as is the case for the new track from the Killers and Bruce Springsteen. The Boss joins the band on a duet version of their 2008 single, “A Dustland Fairytale,†and it all began, as frontman Brandon Flowers explained on social media, with a text. As Flowers tells it, Springsteen texted him right before COVID-19 shut down live performances, and a disbelieving Flowers had to text Springsteen’s son to “get verification that the number really is coming from his old man.†Flowers goes on to explain that “A Dustland Fairytale†was originally written in the middle of his mother’s illness with brain cancer. “It was an attempt to better understand my dad, who is sometimes a mystery to me. To grieve for my mother,†Flowers writes of the song. Springsteen, he concludes, “has written a lot about people like my parents and found a whole lot of beauty in otherwise invisible people’s hopes and dreams.†Listen to the full track below.

Bruce Springsteen Revives ‘Dustland’ With the Killers