The Killers
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50 free The Killers trivia questions with answers — music quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
The Killers came out of a Las Vegas scene that had no use for them, signed to a British indie that had never met them, and turned a four-track riff into the longest-charting single in UK history. Seven studio albums later every one has gone to No. 1 in Britain, a streak no other overseas act can match. These 50 questions cover the whole run: the New Order video that supplied the name, the Oasis gig that changed Brandon Flowers' mind, the Elvis compilation behind the logo, Zane Lowe, Lizard King and Island, Hot Fuss and its 173 chart weeks, Sam's Town with Flood and Moulder, Tim Burton's video, the Tokyo shoot, Sawdust, Stuart Price and the Hunter S. Thompson quote behind Human. Then Battle Born, Wembley, Morse code, Jacknife Lee, Spike Lee, Lindsey Buckingham, Springsteen, the Georgia controversy and the Christmas singles for Product Red. Every answer is cited to a page we checked, with a short explanation so you learn something either way. Play it solo or print it for an indie-night quiz.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01In which city were the Killers formed?
Las Vegas
Las Vegas had a rock scene full of rap-rock and nu metal when the band started out, and their first record deal came from a little label in Britain instead.
Q 02On which teen drama did the Killers appear as themselves in 2004, playing a club called the Bait Shop?
The O.C.
The O.C. had invented the Bait Shop that season as a way to put real bands on screen. Modest Mouse and Death Cab for Cutie played the same fictional stage.
Q 03Whose newspaper ad did Brandon Flowers answer in 2001, starting the Killers?
Dave Keuning
Dave Keuning had arrived from Iowa a year earlier, and his ad listed the bands he loved. Flowers says he skipped past the nu metal fans until he saw the Beatles and Smashing Pumpkins named.
Q 04Who is the Killers' drummer?
Ronnie Vannucci Jr.
Ronnie Vannucci Jr. was a music student specialising in classical percussion when he joined, and he sneaked the band into his college's music building at night to rehearse. He went back and finished the degree in 2011.
Q 05Who is the Killers' bassist?
Mark Stoermer
Mark Stoermer was the lead guitarist of another local band, the Negative Ponies, when he filled in on bass for a single show. It took the others a good deal of persuading before he agreed to switch for good.
Q 06The Killers took their name from a fictional band in a music video by which group?
New Order
New Order's video for "Crystal" is fronted by a made-up young band called the Killers. Flowers loved the clip and asked his first bandmates whether they could simply take the name.
Q 07A concert by which band convinced Brandon Flowers that he belonged in a rock group?
Oasis
Oasis played a hotel venue in his home city, and Flowers, who had been set on synth-pop, came away wanting to form a rock band.
Q 08Which British festival did the Killers headline in both 2007 and 2019?
Glastonbury
Glastonbury first booked them in 2004 for its New Bands tent, where one reviewer thought they already sounded too big for it. Three years later they were topping the bill on the main stage.
Q 09What is the title of the Killers' debut album?
Hot Fuss
Hot Fuss kept several songs as the band's original demos. Its cover shows buildings on the edge of Beijing, and the photographer says the then-unknown band told him they expected to sell 5,000 copies.
Q 10Whose murder do the Killers recount in their three-song "Murder Trilogy"?
Jenny
Jenny's story is told back to front: the debut album opens with the final chapter, a police interrogation, and keeps the second for later. The first was left off and surfaced three years on, on a rarities compilation.
Q 11What was the Killers' first single, released in the UK in September 2003?
Mr. Brightside
Mr. Brightside peaked at a modest No. 10 in Britain, yet it holds the record for the most weeks in the UK Top 100: 408 and counting by May 2024. No bigger-selling song has ever missed No. 1 there.
Q 12The Killers recorded "A White Demon Love Song" for the soundtrack of which 2009 film?
New Moon
New Moon, the second Twilight film, filled its soundtrack with indie rock instead of chart pop. Death Cab for Cutie wrote the lead single specially for it, and Lykke Li contributed a song too.
Q 13Which talk-show host co-wrote and guests on the Killers' 2014 Christmas single, "Joel the Lump of Coal"?
Jimmy Kimmel
Q 21Which Glee actress plays Brandon Flowers in the Killers' "Just Another Girl" video?
Dianna Agron
Dianna Agron strides through remakes of the band's best-known videos dressed as the singer, feathered jacket included. The song was written to round off a tenth-anniversary hits collection, so the video looks back too.
Q 22What was the lead single from the Killers' second album, in 2006?
When You Were Young
When You Were Young announced a change of direction, from the debut's new-wave sound towards American heartland rock. It brought the band two more Grammy nominations, one for the song and one for its video.
Q 23Tim Burton directed his first music video for which Killers single?
Bones
Jimmy Kimmel helped write the tale of Joel, a lump of coal Santa hands a naughty boy as a punishment. The twist is Joel's: he turns himself into a diamond to make the boy happy.
Q 14Which Oscar-winning actress keeps rescuing a captive Brandon Flowers in the video for his solo single "Crossfire"?
Charlize Theron
Charlize Theron fights off his masked captors while the singer sits tied up, turning the usual damsel-in-distress plot on its head. It was his first single away from the band, in 2010.
Q 15The Killers' marquee-sign logo was inspired by a compilation by which artist?
Elvis Presley
Elvis Presley's then-new hits collection caught Flowers's eye in a record shop in 2002, and its cover gave him the idea of a name spelled out in marquee lights. The drummer's flatmate's girlfriend drew the logo.
Q 16The Killers played before and after which sport's Grand Final in Melbourne in 2017?
Aussie rules
Aussie rules football's biggest day drew about 100,000 people. At the free concert after the match, Jack Riewoldt, who had just won the title with Richmond, climbed on stage and sang with the band.
Q 17Which actress, a veteran of Tim Burton's films, plays the waxwork that comes to life in the Killers' "Here with Me" video?
Winona Ryder
Winona Ryder plays the star a lonely young man adores so much that he steals her wax double. Burton filmed it in the English seaside resort of Blackpool on a gap in the band's tour.
Q 18Which MTV Video Music Award did the Killers win in 2005?
Best New Artist
Best New Artist came three days after Hurricane Katrina struck South Florida and forced MTV to call off pre-show events. The ceremony itself went ahead on schedule in Miami.
Q 19Which song did the Killers play at Live 8 in London in 2005?
All These Things That I've Done
All These Things That I've Done was their whole set that day: one song. Flowers has said its gospel choir was his attempt at what U2 do, and U2 had opened the same concert a few hours earlier.
Q 20What is the title of the Killers' second album?
Sam's Town
Sam's Town is a real place, a hotel whose giant sign one of the band could see from his bedroom window as a boy. In 2016 they marked the album's tenth birthday by playing it in full there, two nights running.
Bones gave the director of Corpse Bride an obvious way in: he filled the video with skeletons, a trademark of his films.
Q 24The Killers filmed their "Read My Mind" video in which city?
Tokyo
Tokyo was a stop on the way to an Australian tour, and the band spent it cycling round the city for the camera. Flowers called the song "kind of our favorite".
Q 25What is the Killers' 2007 compilation of B-sides and rarities called?
Sawdust
Sawdust was modelled on the odds-and-ends albums the band had grown up with, such as Nirvana's Incesticide and Smashing Pumpkins' Pisces Iscariot. It sweeps up B-sides, covers and leftovers from their first five years.
Q 26The Killers' cover of "Shadowplay" for the film Control was originally by which band?
Joy Division
Joy Division were the film's subject: Control tells the story of their singer, Ian Curtis, and the Killers' version plays over its closing credits.
Q 27The Killers' 2007 single "Tranquilize" was a duet with which rock legend?
Lou Reed
Lou Reed recorded it with them in New York. Flowers has said the band were so in awe that the first day was stiff with nerves, and that one visitor lasted two minutes in the room before fleeing.
Q 28Which Madonna producer made the Killers' third album, Day & Age?
Stuart Price
Stuart Price had remixed the band before he ever met them. Much of the album was then made an ocean apart: the band sent demos from home over the internet, and Price phoned back from London with his notes.
Q 29Brandon Flowers described the Killers' "Human" as "Johnny Cash meets" which group?
Pet Shop Boys
Pet Shop Boys were more than a reference point. The duo had already remixed one Killers single, and a few months after "Human" came out their singer, Neil Tennant, joined the band on a Christmas record.
Q 30The much-debated chorus of the Killers' "Human" was inspired by a remark from which writer?
Hunter S. Thompson
Hunter S. Thompson had grumbled that America was raising "a generation of dancers", afraid to step out of line. Flowers borrowed the word, and listeners spent months arguing over whether he was singing "dancer" or "denser".