The Killers have publicly apologized for an incident that occurred onstage during a concert in the country of Georgia, the former Soviet state that Russia invaded in 2008. During the show, frontman Brandon Flowers invited a Russian fan onstage, which caused a negative reaction from the audience. After The Killers finished their entire set, the crowd was further angered when Flowers responded onstage by reportedly urging the Georgian crowd to think of each other as “brothers and sisters.”

At the end of the show on Tuesday (Aug. 15) in Batumi, Georgia, the band invited a Russian man in attendance onstage to play drums with them during the song “For Reasons Unknown.” Flowers can be heard telling the crowd in a fan-captured footage of the incident: “We don’t know the etiquette of this land, but this guy’s a Russian …You okay with a Russian coming up here?” which received a mixture of cheers and boos. After more booing followed the song’s conclusion, Flowers reportedly said, “You can’t recognize if someone’s your brother? He’s not your brother? … We all separate on the borders of our countries? … Am I not your brother, being from America? … I don’t want it to turn ugly. And I see you as my brothers and my sisters.”

After the backlash, however, The Killers released a statement explaining they had thought the audience reaction was positive; and also apologized for the “brothers and sisters” remark:  “Good people of Georgia, it was never our intention to offend anyone! We have a longstanding tradition of inviting people to play drums, and it seemed from the stage that the initial response from the crowd indicated that they were okay with tonight’s audience participation member coming onstage with us. We recognize that a comment, meant to suggest that all of The Killers’ audience and fans are ‘brothers and sisters,’ could be misconstrued. We did not mean to upset anyone and we apologize. We stand with you and hope to return soon.”

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