{"id":2448757,"date":"2019-09-16T02:37:02","date_gmt":"2019-09-16T08:37:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rollingstone.com\/?p=884905"},"modified":"2019-09-16T02:37:02","modified_gmt":"2019-09-16T08:37:02","slug":"brandon-flowers-pays-tribute-to-ric-ocasek-my-first-king","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/music-news\/brandon-flowers-pays-tribute-to-ric-ocasek-my-first-king\/","title":{"rendered":"Brandon Flowers Pays Tribute to Ric Ocasek: \u2018My First King\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The Killers<\/a> frontman Brandon Flowers<\/a> posted a lengthy tribute to late Cars singer Ric Ocasek<\/a> following his death over the weekend<\/a>. Flowers shared the text of an email he wrote to Ocasek a few years ago via The Killers\u2019 Twitter, noting, \u201cFeeling grateful for Ric. Had the opportunity to send him this email a couple years back. My first king. Thank you, thank you, thank you.\u201d<\/p>\n

In the email, Flowers related to Ocasek how much the Cars<\/a> have meant to him. \u201cI just wanted to reach out and make you aware of my gratitude for you and your band\u2019s contribution to my life,\u201d Flowers wrote before detailing an experience he had discovering the Cars\u2019 music in his early teens. \u201cIndependence and even adrenaline rushed through me on my way to the register to purchase The Cars\u2019 Greatest Hits<\/em>,\u201d Flowers shared. \u201cIt set me on the path towards the adult I would become, towards the job I have (which is the best job in the world), even towards the woman I would be blessed to marry.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Feeling grateful for Ric. Had the opportunity to send him this email a couple years back. My first king. Thank you, thank you, thank you. pic.twitter.com\/h4u8CXDhRg<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014 The Killers (@thekillers) September 16, 2019<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Flowers has cited Ocasek as an influence on him and his music for a long time. In 2018, Flowers helped induct the band into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, offering a lengthy speech<\/a> on their legacy overall, and on him in particular. \u201cOver the years, the Cars have achieved what every kid who ever sweat it out in a garage dreamed of\u2014including a young Kurt Cobain who chose \u2018My Best Friend\u2019s Girl\u2019 as one of his first tunes to learn,\u201d Flowers noted in the speech. \u201cThey achieved greatness and left a comet trail behind them, writing and recording songs that have transcended into classics.\u201d<\/p>\n

Back in 2012, Flowers told Entertainment Weekly<\/em><\/a> that the Cars\u2019 song \u201cJust What I Needed\u201d changed his life. \u201cI mean, there wasn\u2019t even a stoplight in this town, and it was such a big contrast because, you know, I was from Las Vegas,\u201d Flowers said of listening to the track during his youth when living in a small town. \u201cBut that song was just so cool to me, and it had such a big impact. It made that town more tolerable, and it made that town cooler, and it didn\u2019t matter. It was really profound.\u201d<\/p>\n

He also commented on whether Ocasek might ever produce a Killers album, which unfortunately didn\u2019t come to pass. \u201cHe was on the list, definitely,\u201d Flowers said to Entertainment Weekly<\/em>. \u201cI don\u2019t know if it was our first manager\u2014who\u2019s not our manager anymore, because he\u2019s a liar\u2014or if it was our A&R guy, but I forgot who told us, but they told us that Ocasek wasn\u2019t into it. And I found out later that he never said that. So there\u2019s how history was changed\u2014he may have done one of the first or second Killers records if I hadn\u2019t thought that.\u201d<\/p>\n

via:: Rolling Stone<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Killers frontman Brandon Flowers posted a lengthy tribute to late Cars singer Ric Ocasek following his death over the weekend. Flowers shared the text of an email he wrote to Ocasek a few years ago via The Killers\u2019 Twitter, noting, \u201cFeeling grateful for Ric. Had the opportunity to send him this email a couple […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[50],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-2448757","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-music-news"},"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-06-27 20:29:59","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"KSPN The Valley's Quality Rock","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2448757","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2448757"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2448757\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2448757"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2448757"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2448757"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}