Just over a year after releasing their Ireland and UK No.1 album Because Of The Times, Southern rockers Kings Of Leon are preparing to put out their fourth LP, Only By The Night. When Hot Press catches up with the group’s drummer, Nathan Followill, the band are taking a break in rehearsals for their upcoming round of festival shows, including a headlining slot at Oxegen. The Kings also recently played a series of US dates with Pearl Jam, which Nathan feels went particularly well.

“Those gigs were amazing,” he enthuses. “Having just finished the album, we wanted to play every new song, but you can’t really do that. It kind of worked out well, because we got to familiarise ourselves again with some tracks that we haven’t played in a while, which we wanted to do ahead of the festivals. Also, we played two new songs during those shows, and the very next day they were up on YouTube and what have you. It’s good to give the fans a teaser, but you don’t want to give the whole thing away.”
When I spoke to Nathan last year, he mentioned that on a previous tour with Pearl Jam, Eddie Vedder had encouraged the group to take up surfing. Did they get a chance to hit the waves this time around?
“We didn’t get up to much surfing on this tour,” Nathan rues. “The waves weren’t quite big enough, not that we could surf big waves anyway. But we still got to enjoy being in the water, it was nice. I’ve still got a little tan.”
The band have certainly been quick to record the follow-up to Because Of The Times. Was the plan always to get another album out so swiftly?
“Well, Because Of The Times was finished a good year before it got released,” explains Nathan. “The delay was due to label stuff, in terms of them not wanting your record to come out against Beyoncé or whoever. That didn’t bother us at all, because it doesn’t matter what record comes out when yours does, your true fans are going to buy it no matter what. I guess they were trying to appeal to the audiences who might buy our record if, say, Beyoncé’s wasn’t coming out. I don’t know if us and Beyoncé have the same fans, but we’ll see on this record!
“We could have put Because Of The Times out whenever we wanted to, but between the label and our managers, that’s the approach that was arrived at. The goal is to get as many fans as possible, so we were like, ‘If it’ll help us do that, let’s go with it.’ And it actually worked out, it ended up being a number one record for two or three weeks. So it kind of made them look good in the decisions they were making.”
Having experimented with different sounds on Because Of The Times, early reports indicate that Only By The Night will see Kings Of Leon getting back to their Southern rock roots.
“There is some definite rocking on this one,” Nathan confirms. “There are a lot more melodies, and the instrumentation is a lot more out there. I think we’re all much better players together. It’s our fourth record, so we’ve definitely had enough studio time under our belt to figure out how to do it. We’ve always been a live band; that’s where we get out there and really hit it.
“But this is the first album where we didn’t use Ethan Johns, so we got a little more involved in the production. We still ended up doing around 70% of it live, but we made sure we got everything we wanted, and the response from everyone who’s heard it so far has been great.”
Interestingly, Caleb Followill was forced to undergo surgery on his shoulder a while back after a fistfight with Nathan. What exactly caused the altercation?
“It was probably alcohol related,” responds Nathan. “It was one of those things where we woke up the next day and were like, ‘What were we fighting about?’ Neither of us had any idea. You know, when you’ve got brothers and alcohol, it doesn’t take much. When Caleb was little, he was double-jointed, and he could take both hands over his head to his back. I think over the years, he had kind of worn that muscle out, and I hit him on the sweet spot. It just finished the job. He would have needed surgery anyway, I just expedited the process.”
As it happens, Caleb recently told Rolling Stone that the pain medication he took after surgery may have proved beneficial to his creativity (“I think we’re going to get him a bottle of pain pills for every record,” chuckles Nathan). The singer also commented that, “We had to get drunk because we all have girlfriends to go home and deal with.” Was there much boozing going on during the making of the record?
“I would use a word a little bigger than ‘much’,” Nathan laughs. “There was quite a bit of boozing going on. Not sloppy, stupid drunk, more like feelgood drunk. We wanted to go in there and make music that your mom would dance to. It was definitely a party that had some recording involved. We did the record at home, and it’s kind of hard to come off a long tour and just go back to being a normal person.
“Obviously, you don’t want to be that guy who goes out every night in his home town and gets written about for being shitty-faced. We used the studio like a clubhouse. We’d go in there and get a little work done, and when we’d done enough for that day, we would start drinking. If the drinking got out of hand and we didn’t do anything else for the rest of the day, at least we’d got enough done to be productive.
“A lot of our friends in bands are like, ‘Dude, how do y’all do that? When you’re in the studio, you need to be focused. You can party when you’re finished.’ If you can have the best of both worlds, why not? We’re usually good and sauced when we play live, so why not during recording? (laughs) It’s gonna end up sounding the same as a live show would, I guess. I’ll say we do it so it’ll sound more like our live show.”
Does that ever affect the quality of the gigs?
“Especially at festivals and stuff like that, I don’t know anyone on the face of this earth who could look out at 100,000 kids and not get a little bit nervous,” says Nathan. “I think everyone has a certain way of taking the edge off, even if it’s someone who doesn’t drink or do drugs. Someone could do yoga. I’ve got drummer friends who do a hundred push-ups before shows just to get their metabolism up. Everyone has their way to get things done.
“I’m not saying we get shit-faced every show, but there have been a couple where I’ve gotten a little too drunk, and it’s like, ‘Aw, shit. What am I gonna do now?’ So I just go ahead and warn my brothers not to turn around and look at me if I mess up. Just act like it didn’t happen and maybe the crowd will never know.
“The funny thing is that I’ve had a few where I didn’t remember a thing, and the next day people are like, ‘Dude, that was such a bad-ass show last night. You were on your game.’ But that’s the way it always goes. If you walk offstage and you think you’ve had a great show, people will go, ‘Yeah, it was alright.’ But if you think you’ve had a shitty show, people will go, ‘Man, what a gig.’”
Also in the Rolling Stone piece, Caleb suggested that some of the tracks on the album may have a political theme, particularly ‘Crawl’.
“That got taken a little out of context,” Nathan explains. “We have a friend who works for Rolling Stone, so any time we’re talking to him, we’ll say stuff kind of sarcastically, and he puts it down. But I think we were definitely a lot more aware of the political situation that’s going on in America right now. You know, this is the first record where we’re all old enough to vote. I don’t know if it’s 18 or 21 – that shows you how much I know about politics.
“At first, you had all these bands coming out with their political songs and their anti-war songs. It was like everybody was kind of doing the same thing, and we didn’t want to be one of those bands who go, ‘Shit, let’s just jump on the bandwagon here.’ So, we just let things die down, and it’s an election year, and there’s going to be a change no matter what. I would say we’re definitely all aware of the political state America’s in right now.”
Although Kings Of Leon are widely admired among both their contemporaries and older acts (they count Bob Dylan and members of The Rolling Stones and Led Zeppelin among their fans), Nathan himself has of late been the recipient of some particularly high praise. Talking about his love of Kings Of Leon, Radiohead’s Ed O’Brien said, “The drummer, he’s amazing. They’re all great but he’s really special.”
“It’s a very nice compliment,” Nathan beams. “I was very surprised. I don’t think any of us actually consider ourselves great musicians. It’s me, my two brothers and my cousin up there playing music, no one really sets out to be an absolute virtuoso or what have you. So yeah, it was definitely a total shock to me, I had no idea that he was such a fan. I love Radiohead, we listened to In Rainbows pretty much non-stop during this record. Ed, if you ever want to start a side band, just let me know bro’.”
Speaking of high profile fans, Nicole Kidman and her husband Keith Urban attended a Kings Of Leon gig in Australia earlier this year.
“Keith is a fan of ours. During our last record, he was in the studio next door to ours, so we got to hang out with him quite a bit and become friends. So Nicole came out, and my fiancée thinks they’re best friends now, it’s hilarious. She’s always like, ‘Call up Nicole and Keith and let’s go have dinner.’”
Also spotted at a Kings Of Leon show last year was Kirsten Dunst.
“Yeah, she and Johnny Borrell came to one of our shows,” says Nathan. “We’d met Johnny before, I think we played a couple of festivals with them. But I’ve never talked to Kirsten. There’s a rule – if a guy in a band brings an actress girlfriend to your show, you can only talk to the guy. It keeps the fistfights to a minimum.”
Well, it would appear you need to cut down in that department.
“I don’t have anything to worry about – I’m not the one getting surgery all the time!”
On the weekend after our interview, Kings Of Leon are due to headline Glastonbury. Have the band played the festival before?
“That was the first festival we ever performed at, we played the New Band tent back in 2002 or 2003. Then the next time we played was three years ago, right before Oasis on the Main Stage, and now we’re headlining. Each time we’ve taken a leap forward, I guess you would say. So next year, I guess the only thing bigger than this is actually playing on top of the Pyramid Stage.
“As it happens, my birthday is on Thursday and we play on Friday, which is my drum tech’s birthday. Also, my manager’s birthday is on Saturday. I have already made up my mind that I’m celebrating my birthday the night after we play Glastonbury!”
Noel Gallagher, of course, was quite critical of the selection of Jay Z as one of the headline acts at Glastonbury this year. Is Nathan a fan of the rapper?
“I am actually a fan of Jay Z,” he answers. “Maybe cos I’m American. But I guess he’s a rap icon. In America there are two kinds of rap, you’ve got the gangsta rap, which is hardcore. Then you’ve got, like, N*E*R*D, who have rap songs, but they’re not really traditional, they’re not so much about the bling and that stuff. Jay Z is more of a mainstream rapper, I would say, that’s probably why they would choose him over a hardcore rap act or whatever.
“I think the crowd are going to be surprised at how many songs he has that they really know and like, it should be interesting. I mean, hell, they’ve got Neil Diamond playing this year. There’s your bling right there.”
To get back to the band’s new album, where does the title Only By The Night come from?
“That was just us sitting around, kicking out ideas. It wasn’t my suggestion, so I don’t really know the thinking behind that. We’ll just chalk that one up to drunkenness, yet again. Our good old friend alkey-hol.”
Finally, what are Nathan’s memories of playing Oxegen last year?
“I think I stepped in every mud puddle a human could possibly step in,” he recalls. “I put on my wellies and went and found every puddle possible. I’m prepared this year, so bring it on.”