Rolling Stone Killers Guitarist Dave Keuning Explains Why He Left The Group, How He Returned “I could not go to the airport and devote myself to two more years of being gone,” says the guitarist and founding member. “I was going crazy” By Dana Trippe* Guitarist Dave Keuning formed the Killers in 2001 when he took out an ad in a Las Vegas newspaper seeking musicians, and he’s a key creative voice in the group that co-wrote classics like “Mr. Brightside,” ‘Somebody Told Me” and “When You Were Young.” But he stepped off the road in 2017 to spend more time with his family, citing exhaustion. The group insisted he was still technically a member, but it became a little hard to believe when he didn’t participate in the sessions for 2020’s