Once upon a time, Brandon Flowers had hair on his face. Before that, his band The Killers released Hot Fuss, their very popular and good debut album. Now, Flowers has neither a beard nor a recent hit to his name, but he does have a Ziploc bag filled with seven years worth of his own shavings. Brandon, you’re a star.

In an interview with the Independent that was ostensibly meant to promote his forthcoming solo album, Flowers seemingly talked at length about his ol’ bag o’ hair and what it means to him as a musician. Flowers grew a beard around the time The Killers released their second album, Sam’s Town, and got rid of it because Neil Tennant, of the Pet Shop Boys, worried that the hair had something to do with that record’s uncharacteristically rock-n-rollin’ sound. OK. Remember when you were young?

Flowers – then, as now, in awe of Tennant – decided to heed the Brit’s warning. When he removed the beard for The Killers’ third album, Day & Age (2008), he says, “I started keeping the shavings in a bag.

“And I still do it,” he grins. “I have a Ziploc bag full of hair. I’ll grow five or six days growth, make sure that the sink is dry, use an electric razor, catch it in the sink, and then I’m able to just scoop it into the bag!”

Scoop it into the bag. Kinda seems like you could just be scooping it into the trash can, but I get it. What I don’t get: Why save all that hair? Has it become a sort of ritual?

“And putting the hair in the bag has sort of become a ritual, I guess. It makes me think about where I stand. There’s always gonna be a part of me that is pop. And I shouldn’t forget that. That’s important. Because there’s nothing wrong with pop. So I keep this bag in a drawer by my sink in the bathroom.”

As for his band, he told the Independent, “Whether the people want to accept it or not, we might be the best band in the last long time!...I do feel sometimes people don’t have a grasp on what we’ve accomplished and what we’ve acquired. Everyone should come see The Killers!”

Good band. Bad beard. Put your hair in the bag. Smile like you mean it.

Brandon Flowers’ mouth photo via AP. Contact the author at andy@gawker.com.