Recorded at the Killers' Battle Born Studios in Las Vegas and produced by Wonderful Wonderful producer Jacknife Lee, this standalone single is the band's heartfelt state-of-the-nation address.
The powerful lament was inspired by current events and addresses various issues including gun violence, racial inequality, mass incarceration and President Trump's proposed wall at the Mexican border. Throughout the song, The Killers proclaim what they see as the irony behind America's longtime nickname of "land of the free," when it's such a divided country. Land of the free, land of the free In the land of the free (I'm standing crying) Killers frontman Brandon Flowers said the 2012 mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut first sparked the idea for the song. "It started, in my mind, around the time Sandy Hook happened, and then it just started stacking up, like Eric Garner, Trayvon Martin, things that are happening with [Donald Trump's] wall," he explained to Beats 1's Zane Lowe. "You know, this stuff just didn't seem to be in harmony with the values I believe my country was founded on."
Flowers' grandparents emigrated from Lithuania to America in the 20th century in order to build a better life for their family. The Killers' singer talks in the first verse about America being a nation built on large-scale immigration. His mother, Adeline's family, came on a ship Cut coal and planted a seed Down in them drift mines of Pennsylvania In the land of the free Flowers explained on Twitter: "It wasn't that long ago that my grandmother and her family immigrated from Lithuania to escape the USSR's oppression. They chose to leave everything they knew behind to come to America and work grueling jobs in dangerous coal mines, rather than endure tyranny at home."
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