an interview / review from the uk's biggest selling newspaper (turkeys 'n' all)...
www.thesun.co.uk/article/0,,2006140003-2007140751,00.html
Kings of learning
By SIMON COSYNS
March 30, 2007
KINGS OF LEON - Because Of The Times
Rating 5
SOMEWHERE in deepest Tennessee, Caleb Followill is reclining on his timber-framed porch, reflecting on where his 25-year-old life has taken him.
As five wild turkeys strut across his field of vision, the Kings Of Leon singer decides he’s been dealt a winning hand.
“At some point every day, I thank God for being blessed and for having this life,” he says in his engaging Southern drawl.
“We never imagined that we would be this big or that we would be able to do something that we wanted to do.
“There’s a lot of unfortunate people out there so all of us in the band are thankful for what we have. Mostly when we talk to Jesus, it’s before a show, hoping we don’t mess up!”
These sentiments are mirrored on The Runner, a key track from the Kings’ third album, Because Of The Times, which finds the Followill clan, brothers Caleb, Nathan, Jared and cousin Matthew, striking out into bold, new musical territory with looser songs bearing stadium-sized riffs and crazed rock freak-outs.
In that cracked, unmistakable voice, Caleb moans: “I talk to Jesus, Jesus, that I’m OK.”
It all seems a far cry from the image of these four impossibly young, impossibly cool dudes with pencil-thin legs and mounds of hair, bursting on to the scene like kids in a sweetshop in a haze of parties, booze, drugs and women.
Caleb says: “We all still have good morals. You fight with Jesus and the devil and all that stuff your whole life. The only people we know to thank are God and each other.”
From travelling round the South with preacherman dad Leon to becoming rock-god babe-magnets, it’s clear the boys went through a huge culture shock.
“You can change in the wrong direction,” he says. “You start to believe the hype and what people say about you. You turn into an a**hole.
“You’re no longer brothers and a cousin in a band. It’s four guys in a band and your egos all clash.
“You’re on so many different substances and on such a high from everything else that you don’t realise what you’re doing is about to break you up. Break apart and its all gonna be over.”
Two albums of taut MTV-friendly rock-pop songs, the debut Youth And Young Manhood and follow-up Aha Shake Heartbreak, gave them a solid, adoring fanbase.
"Of course, it all went to their heads. How could it not? But Caleb feels they’ve had a reality check and got their career back exactly where they want it for the third one.
“Coming home and making this new record, being away from the city lights, the girls and everybody giving you exactly what you want, has made us friends again. We’re family and we wanna do this for a while.”
Because Of The Times is as surprising as it stunning. It begins with the seven minutes of rough and ready brilliance that is Knocked Up. It deals with a life less fortunate than those of the Followills. A girl gets pregnant far too young. Life over.
Caleb’s keen to stress: “No, I DON’T have anyone who’s having a baby . . . er, I don’t think.”
But he says: “There’s a lot of young kids who make dumb mistakes with drugs or getting pregnant before they know what they are getting into.
I’m 25 and a lot of people my age have kids. I just tried to swallow the fear and put myself in their shoes.
“I thought, ‘Would I be a responsible dad?’ and then thought, ‘No, I’d probably be a dick about it.’” The song has a raw, organic, live-in-the studio feel that sets the template for the whole album. Caleb explains the process: “We all just stumbled into the studio and one person would start and then somebody would join in.
“We were just writing the song while we were doing it. I repeated myself one time, I think I got some lyrics wrong on there. You can even hear the door closing in the background.”
He believes that every other band would have put it last “but we knew wanted too take some risks. We thought that if people can get past that song and still wanna listen to the record then they’ll think it’s a beautiful album”.
The sessions for Because Of The Times found the band fired up like never before.
“This is our most hands-on album, all four of us,” says the singer. “There was face-to-face arguing over exactly how far we could take it and what we could do.
"We were really passionate about it cos we could tell we were on our way to something we were gonna be proud of.
“We even forgot we had a fanbase and played music that made us all smile. Then, when the record was finished, we realised, ‘Oh s**t, we have to play this for people, don’t we?’ ” Caleb says he never usually listens to Kings Of Leon music himself “but I was playing it for my cousin just now and listened to it and, man, it still sounds so fresh.
“Normally, I feel completely awkward listening to our stuff”.
Another huge influence on the album is the vast desert landscapes of the South West, particularly evident on epic, widescreen closing song Arizona.
“I just became infatuated with the desert. We got some mind-altering experiences walking round the desert at night. I became so in love with it that when I came home and sobered up, I still had it in my mind.
“That song, any time we play it to this day, you feel like you’re on top of a mountain with the wind blowing. We just kind of lean back and enjoy ourselves when we get to play Arizona.
”Before Christmas, another experience made a memorable impact on Caleb and the other band members — touring with the great Bob Dylan, a man more than twice their age, old enough to be their grandfather.
“He’s a huge hero. Anyone who’s ever tried to write a song has immediately felt stupid when they’ve heard one of his.
“We thought maybe he had someone in his camp nudging him, saying he would look cool if he had a young band like Kings Of Leon but that wasn’t the case. We soon found out he was a big fan and he talks us up on his radio show.”
And did they get to meet him?
“We did. It was our last night. I almost passed out. I went white and my mouth got so dry I couldn’t speak. He actually came in our dressing room and told us he was depressed cos we were getting off the tour. “He looked at me and said, ‘What’s that last song you did?’ I said it was called Trani. He said, ‘That’s a helluva song.’
”So, with anointment from His Bobness, a life-affirming album in the bag and another big tour just days away, did Caleb think Kings Of Leon had changed enough to curb the excesses when they hit the road again?
"I’m sure I’d like to say we’re changed people, but when you’re out on the road it’s kinda hard,” he says.
“I mean, we’ll still out-drink any band that you put up against us. The UK has no match for the Kings Of Leon.
“We’re also the biggest womanisers that you’ve ever seen and we’re not proud of that. It’s a disease. We can’t get away from it!”
Now that is rock ’n’ roll. Let’s hope Jesus doesn’t mind too much.
LOWDOWN
FORMED: 2000, Mt Juliet, Tennessee
THEY ARE: Caleb Followill, 25, lead vocals, rhythm guitar; Nathan Followill, 27, drums; Jared Followill, 20, bass; Matthew Followill, 22, lead guitar
HITS: Molly’s Chambers, Red Morning Light, The Bucket, On Call
