ARTIST · ROCK / ALTERNATIVE

Kings of Leon

Pentecostal sneer meets Strokes haircuts—family band that grew into festival titans.

Rock
Alternative rock

Updated 27 October 2026

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Biography

Followill brothers (and cousin) welded Southern swagger to UK indie polish.

Sex on Fire and Use Somebody dominated late-2000s rock radio globally.

Earlier albums kept rawer production for listeners who prefer garage clang.

High-bitrate audio keeps room drums, vocal rasp, and guitar midrange punch.

Brothers Caleb, Nathan, and Jared Followill and their cousin Matthew grew up in a family of Pentecostal preachers, touring the American South. Youth & Young Manhood (2003) and Aha Shake Heartbreak (2004) were Southern garage-rock albums that were embraced in the UK first.

Because of the Times (2007) and Only by the Night (2008) took the band to arenas with Sex on Fire and Use Somebody. Come Around Sundown (2010), Mechanical Bull (2013), and Walls (2016) followed.

Kings of Leon: recent news, 2020–2026

2021 When You See Yourself was released in March, and the band became the first major group to release an album as a non-fungible token.
2024 Can We Please Have Fun was released in May.

Interesting facts about Kings of Leon

01 American rock band formed in Nashville, Tennessee in 1999 around brothers Caleb, Nathan, and Jared Followill with cousin Matthew Followill.
02 Only by the Night (2008) became their mainstream breakthrough album.
03 Multiple Grammy Awards including Record of the Year for Use Somebody (2010).
04 The Followill family toured in a Pentecostal ministry when the brothers were young.
05 Only by the Night (2008) included Sex on Fire and Use Somebody.