Kings of Leon–also dubbed U2's successors, and “the next great arena band,” are performing at the Verizon Wireless Amphitheater in Irvine tonight. After a 40 minutes of a round-robin press teleconference with singer/guitarist Caleb Followill and bassist Jared
Followill, I realized that KoL are just like you and me. How's that, you ask?
1. They get scared just like common folk: Caleb Followill says initially
they weren't that thrilled about blowing up in the mainstream like they
did. “The thing that kind of scared us a
little is what people's expectations would be…When we went on stage,
at times, we're
not having the best show, well, you can see it. We wear our
hearts on our sleeves and our attitudes and everything, and it got to a
point
where people are saying 'Well, I paid money to come see a good show and
you come out here and you act a certain way.'” He added, “For the most
part, I
was scared to death when we got off the road, I thought we wouldn't be
able to
go anywhere without people recognizing us and stuff but somehow, some
way,
we've seemed to manage to get under the radar just enough to where we
just made
another album and people don't really even realize it.”
]
2. They struggle with self-acceptance: “I just hope that everyone that comes
to see
us, they realize that we are still young and we're still trying to find
ourselves as people, as a band, and I don't want people's expectations
to get
too high,” Caleb says, adding, “I struggled with…seeing kids
saying they were disappointed that their parents would come up to them
and ask
them if they had heard Kings of Leon. But you know,
there
comes a point in your life when you had to settle in your own skin and
be happy
for everything that you have, and there are going to be times that as a
28-year-old man, I write a song that a 14-year-old doesn't like because it's not
on the
level of what they want to hear. And I get it completely. But at the end of the day, we have to
write
music
that makes us happy and write music that makes us want to get up every
day and
do it over and over.”
3. They started small: Jared
Followill says
when the band first started, “none of us
really knew how to play, we kind of just got together and decided to
make a
band. And then, it went so fast and those early shows are what taught us
how to
play our instruments…none of the
records that preceded the
first one
would have been anywhere near what they were, had we not played a million
gigs.”
4. They want everlasting love: Caleb
Followill says, “Every
person that's in a
band, they think that they're going to go out there and it's going to be
drink
beer all day and pretty girls and do drugs and all that. Well, we've been at it for so long that
now, when you do have a significant other in your life, there are times
when
they're not going to understand why you work as much as you do. But you know, once you sign up for this
gig, you have
to be ready to go along for the long haul and in the process, you're
going to
have to put other things in your life on the back burner …You have to absolutely go for it and
then
hopefully,
like I say, the people that truly love you will be there in the end
whenever
you are done with all of it. If
you're fortunate enough, you'll get someone that stands behind
you and
knows that you're doing it for the right reasons.”
5. Like all of us, they worshipped Pearl Jam growing up: Caleb says, “I was learning from Pearl Jam
before I even picked up a guitar.
They were the first band that really made me… You know, I was 14
years
old in high school and the first time I heard them I was pretty mad at
the
world. And I heard them and I was just, like, “Fuck, yes. This is something that I can live with
for the rest of my life.” What else is on their play list? Jared has a pretty indie-fied list of current favorites: Beach House, The Big Pink, Yeasayer, Grizzly
Bear, and Colored
Music. Caleb
likes Temper Trap, The Drums and the Wavves.
Kings of Leon will be performing in Irvine at the Verizon Wireless Amphitheater, 17701 Culver Dr., Irvine, tonight at 7:30 p.m.
