The Killers Respond to ‘Appalling’ Tour Sexual Misconduct Allegations
The Killers have responded to sexual misconduct allegations made against the band and their touring crew.
The band released a statement through their legal team on Tuesday (July 28).
"First and foremost, any allegations of inappropriate behavior by anyone on The Killers touring team are taken extremely seriously by the band and their management," the statement began.
Clarifying that the band does not currently use the same touring crew as the crew accused of sexual misconduct, their team stated they will be launching a "thorough investigation" into the allegations.
“The band are astonished and shocked by these claims," the statement continued."The behavior attributed to them and their crew is unrecognizable and in direct opposition to the principles with which they run their workplace."
On Tuesday (28 July), Chez Cherrie, a Twitter user who claimed she was a former sound engineer for the band, came forward to claim a 2018 blog post she wrote that included alleged accounts of sexual misconduct by both The Killers and their tour crew. The original post never identified the accuser or band's concert, but she admitted in her tweet this week that the tour in question was The Killers'.
"Trigger warning. This is my story," Cherrie tweeted. "I was a tech for the largest sound company in the world working for one of the biggest bands in the world (still). I’ve never had any sort of justice. I wonder about her all the time. Please share my story about my time with THE KILLERS."
In the blog post, Cherrie claimed that she overheard numerous crew members brag about sexually assaulting an unconscious woman backstage at one of The Killers' concerts in 2009. She also recounted several instances of alleged sexual misconduct from both the crew and certain members of the band throughout the tour.
"About a week into the tour, the bus because unsafe," the blog post read. "The band members (who had their own bus), would bring drunken groupies to our bus and laugh when the girls were too drunk to realize everyone was making fun of them."
"It was like a sport to them," she added. "They clued the audio crew into a special that they had going on. If we trolled for chicks for them, made sure we checked IDs and the girls would come backstage with the unspoken arrangement that they would blow a band member, we could get a $50 bonus. Even more, if the girl would get naked and shower for one particular member, we would get an extra $50."
In another tweet, Cherrie clarified that while frontman Brandon Flowers was not involved in the misconduct, there's likely "no way" he wasn't aware of what was happening.
"Everyone was complacent, including myself," she wrote. "The only band member that wasn’t [a part] of all this shit was Brandon and he had a separate bus with his wife and kids. He wanted no part of it but there is NO WAY he didn’t know this shit was going on."
In a statement to Pitchfork, Cherrie shared that The Killers' legal team has not yet reached out to her, though she finds it promising that the band's statement did not outright deny her claims.
"The fact that [the Killers are] not 100% coming at me and claiming everything is false is a good sign," she said. "And I appreciate that they seem to want to get in touch with me. I have not received a cease and desist yet. I have not been contacted by anybody. They do have my contact information, as I remember it is in their records. So at this point I’m just waiting to hear from them. To find out how they would like to fix this."