It's easy to understand his ambivalence. Flowers is not your typical rock star. He's quietly spoken and self-effacing. His anecdotes are punctuated with nervous laughter, although he's better at making eye contact than when we first met in the Killers' heyday.

In those interviews, he talked about battling stage fright, and the difficulties of balancing touring commitments with family life.

But as he approaches his 21st wedding anniversary, he says that periodic absences from home can have unexpected benefits.

"There's a danger you could grow apart, but there's also this great rediscovery that can happen, and a freshness it can bring, when you return."

He takes commitment seriously. So seriously, in fact, that he's desperate to make amends for a lyric on the last Killers album, called In Another Life, that made some fans question their relationships.

"In the song, the man is concerned about his situation, and he's asking his wife, 'Am I the man of your dreams, or just a guy from your hometown?'," he explains.

"He's wondering if their proximity is the only reason they're together. And I noticed it was making people look at their relationships in a negative light.

"At one point someone said they got divorced because of this line, and I thought, 'How can I fix this?'"

The answer was to write a new song, Does It Ever Cross Your Mind, that reframed the argument.

"Of all the corners of the universe / We wound up hand in hand," he sings over a twangy banjo. "Some may call it a coincidence / But I prefer design."

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