Kings of Leon talk new album, "creating a legacy" and aiming for The Rolling Stones & U2 status

9 May 2024, 20:00 | Updated: 10 May 2024, 10:32

Kings of Leon on new album and "creating a legacy"

By Jenny Mensah

Kings Of Leon's Caleb and Jared Followill spoke to Dan on the eve of the release of their Can We Please Have Fun album and discussed future plans.

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Kings of Leon believe that there's "always new boxes" to tick ahead of the release of their new record.

The Nashville rockers drop their ninth studio album Can We Please Have Fun this Friday (10th May) and Caleb and Jared Followill spoke to Dan O'Connell about making the record as well as their vision for the band.

KOL have headlined festivals and played stadiums all over the world, but asked if they have anything left on their bucket list, bassist Jared told The Evening Show on Radio X: "There's always new boxes. I mean, I think that we all probably have lofty goals, but without ignoring the fact that we've hit a lot of awesome milestones, I think that respect is a big one and creating a legacy.

"Going down as a band that was important and meant something and did good things."

Kings of Leon talk to Dan O'Connell — Kings of Leon's Caleb and Jared Followill talked to Dan O'Connell. Picture: Press/Radio /X

Quizzed if they see themselves becoming a band like The Rolling Stones or U2, Jared admitted: "That's the dream," before his brother Caleb said: "I feel like you have to be at a certain level for that to make sense."

The frontman added: "To be playing shows at their age in a small venue doesn't make as much sense. [To be] at the level where you're playing those big places and people are coming out just to celebrate your catalogue... I don't know.

"I feel like we talk about it a lot. Like, 'When is the last bit of it?' And every time we think it's getting close, when it gets here, we're like, 'Oh no, not yet. Let's keep going.'

The band are also set to embark on a huge string of dates on this side of the pond, which includes a headline show at BST Hyde Park on Sunday 30th June.

Speaking about their new material and if they've tested any of it live yet, Caleb remarked that when playing the record's lead single Mustang in Mexico, it outshone even their most well-known anthem.

"We didn't know where to put it [in the set]," he recalled of the first single. "It had just come out, but we put it at the end of the set, right before Sex on Fire, but we played it and broke into Sex on Fire and Sex on Fire felt small.

"It felt like a tiny song next to Mustang."

Caleb previously told Radio X that he's the most proud of the band's new record and doesn't care if it's a commercial success or not.

"Well this is the most fulfilled I've ever been, I would say," he told Dan O'Connell earlier this year. "When we finished the record and people started to hear little bits and pieces of it and we saw excitement and the things that come along with that... I told the guys and I told my wife and everyone, 'If this album has no success, or it's massively successful, I said it doesn't make a difference.' And I meant it and I still mean it."

The Nashville rocker concluded: It's something I can stand behind and be proud of forever."