Kings of Leon

After a childhood travelling around the Deep South with their Pentecostal Preacher father Ivan ‘Leon’ Followill, the three brothers, Nathan, Caleb and Jared, were finally allowed to embrace rock and roll when their parents divorced in 1997. Moving to Nashville, Tennessee, they recruited cousin Matthew and, in 1999, formed Kings of Leon. in 2003, they released their debut album Youth and Young Manhood to rave reviews. Dubbed the ‘Southern Strokes’ due to the country twang accompanying their fiery garage rock, the band kicked up a storm in the UK and Europe, but it took the grander, more sonically ambitious sound of Aha Shake Heartbreak (2004) and Because of the Times (2006) to crack the US. Steadily growing in stature and creeping up the festival bills, Only by The Night (2008) propelled them to the next level. Lead single “Sex on Fire” was their first UK number 1 single and headline slots at Glastonbury 2008 and Reading / Leeds 2009 confirmed them as one of the world's leading bands. They won Grammy Awards for “Sex on Fire” and “Use Somebody” and the album was their first to reach the Top 5. 2010’s Come Around Sundown gave them their best album chart showing ever, reaching number 2 in America and number 1 in several countries around the globe. The single “Radioactive” became their second American Top 40 pop hit and their fourth Alternative number 1. It also won them another Grammy for Best Rock Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal. A following tour was cut short when lead singer Caleb Followill developed health issues. They soon declared a brief hiatus. After a three-year break, 2013’s Mechanical Bull again went Top 5 around the world. The 2016 album Walls was their first to go number 1 in their home country and included yet another number 1 Alterative hit, “Waste a Moment.” The 2021 single “The Bandit” became the first taste of the album When You See Yourself, which came out later that year and sailed to the top of the charts in Australia, Austria, Ireland, and the UK. In 2024, Kings of Leon announced the release of their ninth studio album, Can We Please Have Fun, which featured the singles “Mustang,” “Split Screen,” and “Nothing to Do.”