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Kings of Leon: We're Too Popular

Frontman Caleb Followill annoyed by group's success

By Kevin Spak,  Newser Staff

Posted Dec 4, 2009 10:41 AM CST

(Newser) – You’d think Kings of Leon would be thrilled by the group's recent success, capped off by four Grammy nods for “Use Somebody,” but it's actually kind of annoying. “We definitely got bigger than we wanted to be,” frontman Caleb Followill tells Spin. “You feel like you’ve done something wrong. That woman in mom jeans who’d never let me date her daughter? She likes my music. That’s fucking not cool.”

It’s gotten so bad that the band members are in “damage control” mode, refusing to promote the album. Before Only by the Night, the group’s first three albums had sold only about 200,000 copies each in the US, but Followill said he got his first inkling of trouble after Pearl Jam’s Eddie Vedder listened to the latest disc. “He said, ‘You’re about to ride a big wave.’ I don’t even think he liked the record. But he knew immediately we were about to go through something big.”

Caleb Followill, of the Kings of Leon, appears with the band on the NBC Today television program in New York,  Friday, July 31, 2009.
Caleb Followill, of the Kings of Leon, appears with the band on the NBC "Today" television program in New York, Friday, July 31, 2009.   (AP Photo/Richard Drew)
From left, Matthew Followill, Jared Followill, Caleb Followill and Nathan Followill, of the band Kings of Leon, arrive at at the MTV Movie Awards on Sunday May 31, 2009, in Universal City, Calif.
From left, Matthew Followill, Jared Followill, Caleb Followill and Nathan Followill, of the band Kings of Leon, arrive at at the MTV Movie Awards on Sunday May 31, 2009, in Universal City, Calif.   (AP Photo/Matt Sayles)
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Nathan Followill from Kings of Leon is at the 2010 Grammy nominations and talks to TV Guide about their noms for Record of the Year for 'Only The Night' and Song of the Year for 'Use Somebody.'   (TV Guide Broadband)

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I can already tell this record is going to get to a level where people will fucking hate us. - Caleb Followill

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COMMENTS
Showing 3 of 21 comments
smuggard
Dec 5, 2009 8:06 AM CST
Yeah, well.They didn't even play a gig before their first record came out, which they didn't even write. That Angelo dude IS the King of Leon. The suit and the haircuts fit. They never had a dream or sweated it out in a rehearsal room, or played shitty gigs in Nashville clubs.Their manager / label was owed a favour, and they are the glorious result of some back-room one-dollar bet. So I guess it does get tiring..sort of like W. Bush as President. It's hard.
laslow
Dec 5, 2009 5:50 AM CST
More like: "Kings of Leon: We Have No Clue How Good We Have It". What a bunch of fucking tools.
Mad
Dec 5, 2009 2:24 AM CST
You're not too popular, penitent child, I never heard of you

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