The Killers celebrate the 18th anniversary of their first “in the big time” paycheck

Credit: Olivia BeeNot many artists can say they saved their first major paycheck, but The Killers‘ drummer Ronnie Vannucci Jr. did and he has the photographic evidence to prove it.

The “Mr. Brightside” hitmakers took to Twitter on Thursday to reminisce about the first paycheck that let the band know they finally made it.

18 years ago today,” The Killers tweeted, sharing a photo of their first paystub that was stamped with the date April 8, 2003. “Our first 25 bucks in the big time. We each got one. Ronnie saved it for Instagram.”

“Shoutout to Warner Bros for giving us a shot,” the band noted.

The tweet caught the attention of Paula Moore, who served as the former A&R executive at Warner Media Group and helped arrange the band’s demo performance.

Taking to her LinkedIn, she reminisced about being one of the forces behind the Killers’ rise to superstardom, writing, “So happy to be the first to believe in these guys, and bring them out to showcase for me and my A&R colleagues at Warner Music Group.”

“I’m so proud of what they’ve accomplished,” she continued. “The scouting program I created that discovered them then was so special when I was an A&R executive at WMG.”

Since releasing their breakout hit “Mr. Brightside,” the American rock band continued to shake up the charts after all six of their albums became top 10 hits on the Billboard 200 chart.

Besides their debut single, The Killers also enjoyed success with their songs “Somebody Told Me,” “When You Were Young” and Human.”

Their latest album, Imploding the Mirage, made it to No. 8 on the chart, which produced the 2020 alternative hit “Caution.”

By Megan Stone
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