Photograph by Max Vadukul

Brandon Flowers is having trouble explaining himself. Maybe it’s because nothing about him adds up: a couture-wearing synth-pop fanatic who wants to be Bruce Springsteen; a devout Mormon who sings in a decadent Las Vegas rock band. Maybe it’s because when Flowers talks, he tends to get in trouble — like when he bragged that Sam’s Town, the previous album from his band, the Killers, was “one of the best albums in the last 20 years” before anyone heard it. Or maybe it’s because, as the Killers prepare to release their third album, Day & Age, he’s still not sure what kind of band they are. “Every day, I change,” says Flowers. “One day I want to be dead serious, and the next I just want to write great pop songs and have fun. I don’t have any kind of clear direction. I don’t know if I’d want to.” He sighs. “I don’t even know why people want to talk to me.”

Read the rest of Brian Hiatt’s feature from the current issue of Rolling Stone here:

• The Killers Inside: Rolling in Vegas With Brandon Flowers, the Biggest, Most Insecure Mormon Rock Star Ever