Watch Paul McCartney Sit In With the Killers on New Year’s Eve
What’s better than a private New Year’s Eve concert by the Killers on a Caribbean island? Having Paul McCartney show up. You can watch the legend sit in with the Las Vegas-based rockers on the Beatles' classic “Helter Skelter” above.
The occasion, as Billboard notes, was a party on the island of St. Barts thrown by Roman Abramovich, a Russian billionaire and owner of Chelsea Football Club. It marked the end of a year for the Killers that saw them perform sporadically, mostly with a smattering of shed and festival dates in the summer. But they did celebrate the 10th anniversary of Sam’s Town by releasing a special vinyl edition and performing two shows at the off-Strip casino for which the record is named. Proceeds from the concerts went to local charities for the homeless and drug addicts.
They continued their philanthropic ways by recording the holiday standard “I’ll Be Home for Christmas” and placing that, and all of the Christmas singles they’ve released over the previous nine years, into Don’t Waste Your Wishes, which benefitted Bono’s (RED) charity. “I’ll Be Home for Christmas” was a duet with Ned Humphrey Hansen, Flowers’ fourth grade teacher, who taught him the meaning behind the song. To promote Don’t Waste Your Wishes, the group and Bono appeared on Jimmy Kimmel Live!, where the U2 singer brought back his MacPhisto character.
However, there’s been no public word about a follow-up to 2012’s Battle Born. In May 2015, while promoting his solo album The Desired Effect, Flowers spoke about the delay. “Once [the Killers] all get on the same page, it’ll work,” but he insisted that “everything is fine … we need a little bit of a kick in the pants, and hopefully it’s coming.”
The Killers Albums Ranked in Order of Awesomeness