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Listen: Bruce Springsteen and The Killers collaborate on highly-anticipated single, Dustland

“Bruce has written a lot about people like my parents and found a whole lot of beauty in otherwise invisible people’s hopes and dreams.”

Bruce Springsteen / Brandon Flowers

Photos: Ilya S. Savenok / Getty, Brian Rasic / Redferns

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Bruce Springsteen and The Killers have released a collaborative track titled Dustland – listen to it below.

The collaborative single, released today (16 June), is a reimagining of A Dustland Fairytale by The Killers, a track from the group’s 2008 album Day & Age. Dustland features vocal contributions from The Boss.

Brandon Flowers, frontman for The Killers, shared a statement on social media earlier today, explaining that the idea to collaborate came from Springsteen himself.

“You guys have become one hellacious live band, my brother,” Springsteen reportedly texted Flowers last year, referring to their set at Glastonbury 2007. “Love the gold suit. We gotta do Dustland one day.”

While the pandemic initially stymied the collaboration, the duo were able to get down to work around the end of 2020.

In his statement, Flowers expounded on A Dustland Fairytale, which he penned as a tribute to his parents, Terry and Jeannie, the latter of whom was battling with cancer at the time.

“It was an attempt to better understand my dad, who is sometimes a mystery to me. To grieve for my mother. To acknowledge their sacrifices, and maybe even catch a glimpse of just how strong love needs to be to make it in this world. It was my therapy. It was cathartic.”

Elsewhere in the statement, Flowers gushed over how Springsteen’s work inspired his own songwriting: “Bruce has written a lot about people like my parents and found a whole lot of beauty in otherwise invisible people’s hopes and dreams.”

“I’m grateful to him for opening this door for me,” he added.

Springsteen and The Killers are slated to perform the tune and take part in an interview on NBC’s The Today Show at 8am EDT.

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