Brandon Flowers is bravely going where no man has gone before — criticizing Kanye West! Back in 2006 the Killers frontman said, “Kanye West makes me ill,” and in light of Ye’s current hyper-celebrity status, Rolling Stone obviously had to ask him about that comment. Here’s what he had to say about whether he stands by that opinion:

Yeah, that one’s tough. Everyone’s afraid to say anything contrary to him being a genius. It’s crazy, man! And it’s frustrating. I’m not going to tear him down, but I will say I find that to be frustrating. [Laughs] That’s my stance on it. A lot of people might agree with me now. I may have been a little bit ahead of my time. But I think he wants to be good. I think he wants to be great, and that’s something that we all want to strive for. We’ve just got different roads of getting there, I guess.

So, was Flowers ahead of his time for criticizing Kanye back in 2006? Is Kanye’s approval rating really as universal as Flowers is making it out to be? I’ll let you sort that out for yourselves in the comments, but put on “Can’t Deny My Love” or brand new “I Can Change” while you type your missives, because they’re both huge, ’80s-pop drama-jams.

The Desired Effect is out 5/19 via Island. Pre-order here.