ACL Music Fest Interviews
By Jim Caligiuri, Fri., Sept. 15, 2006
Kings of Leon
Saturday, 7:30pm, AT&T Blue Room stage
Since their beginnings in 2000, it's been quite a wild ride for Nashville's Kings of Leon. In that time, the young quartet – three brothers and a cousin all surnamed Followill – released two well-received albums, toured with U2, and shook audiences on both sides of the Atlantic with their American rock sweetened with a dollop of Southern charm. The Kings are currently putting the finishing touches on their third release, Because of the Times, currently slated for early February release. Speaking from his home in Tennessee, drummer Nathan Followill, who just turned 27, says it's another step forward for the band.
"I think this record is the most grownup record that we've made so far," he asserts. "It's the most mature and technical. I think this is the first time we went into the studio and did everything we wanted to do. The first record we were scared shitless; the second one, we kind of went out on a limb on a couple of things. But this one, we went in with an idea of the record we wanted to make, and we made the best record we could. We've grown a lot since the last record."
The band will be road-testing new material over the next couple of months in the U.S. and Australia, including support slots for both Bob Dylan and Pearl Jam. Amazingly, unlike other brother acts that occasionally get at each other's throats, the Kings of Leon are relatively peaceful.
"Any problem we would have had, we would have had in the first year," he claims. "There are no big heads, no attitudes. Women and clothes are about the biggest things we'll fight over."
