In 2019, two of the founders of the Center for Latter-day Saint Arts, Richard and Claudia Bushman, were in the Salt Lake City International Airport when they met beloved frontman of The Killers, Brandon Flowers. Their recollection of the encounter is a proper meet cute.

According to Richard Bushman, he and Claudia were preparing to board their plane for New York City when Claudia realized she’d left her handbag in the terminal restroom. Gratefully, an airline attendant helped Claudia reclaim her bag, but as they were standing outside the restroom awaiting the retrieval, Richard was approached by Flowers who was on his way to Italy.

Bushman and Flowers have been admirers of one another’s work; Bushman a fan of Flowers’s “plaintive, haunting” songwriting, Flowers a fan of Rough Stone Rolling. In fact, the airport encounter was not their first meeting, having met prior at a Manhattan fireside for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Bushman describes the fireside, “packed to the rafters,” with a Lincoln Center audience anxiously waiting to hear Flowers speak in a devotional setting. (After the fireside, Flowers rushed off to speak to an even larger audience as the lauded guest of the Seth Meyers Late Night show). 

Because they met in Manhattan, Flowers recognized the Bushmans in the Salt Lake airport searching, as it were, for a purse. He approached them to say “hello.” Richard recollects: “Always the bold one, Claudia asked him if he would be willing to perform for the Center for Latter-day Saint Arts in New York, sometime.” 

Now, on March 18th, Flowers will take to the stage to share an unplugged evening of stories and songs. A benefit evening supporting the Center for Latter-day Saint Arts, Flowers will share his personal insights as one of the most influential singer-songwriters of his generation. He will finish the evening on his guitar, accompanied by bandmates, Robbie Connolly and Jake Blanton. 

Popular solo artists Bri Ray and Ashley Hess will open for Flowers, sharing the stage in a writers’ round setting. They will be joined by the multicultural, all-denominational musical group, the KING will come, to which they both belong. – Emily Larsen Doxford (Brandon Flowers: Stories and Songs is a benefit for the Center for Latter-day Saint Arts. Both the evening and the featured artists highlight the goals of the NYC-based nonprofit, which is to explore the intersection between cultural relevance and divine creativity.)