Brandon Flowers, of The Killers fame, has revealed that he feels protective over his home country of America and often had to speak out in defense of it when President Bush was in power. 

During an interview with London's Metro newspaper, the singer and frontman explained that he felt as though there was a strong "anti-American" attitude that troubled him a few years ago and it caused him to want to address it publicly:

"Well, I feel the need sometimes to defend where I'm from. When we first came out as a band, Bush was president and there was a strong anti-American sentiment."

"I felt it as we were travelling the world, so it made me want to push back a little bit, because we have good people with big hearts. We've seen it shift and change since Obama became president but I was young and trying to understand it all."

He added that despite his patriotism, he adores Europe and grew up listening to music from the continent so has a strong affinity with it: "I have these two sides that are constantly fighting. There's that desire to represent where I'm from, that dusty American road pushing against the fantasy world and European music that I grew up with. Sometimes when they meet in one of our songs, like 'When You Were Young', it's great."