Kings of Leon look to rock OKC homecoming

Gene Triplett, The Oklahoman

Published: October 15, 2008

Three sons and the nephew of a preacher man are coming home again to the town where two of them were born for what’s just liable to be the rockingest family reunion Oklahoma City’s ever seen.

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The Followill boys — brothers Caleb (vocals, guitar), Nathan (drums), Jared (bass) and cousin Matthew (lead guitar) — better known as Kings of Leon, are likely to draw a capacity crowd of faithful fans and more than a few relatives when they roll into the Coca-Cola Bricktown Events Center on Oct. 26.

Some 60 Oklahoma relatives mingled with hundreds of non-related Leon-lovers at the band’s March 2005 Bricktown appearance, and the turnout should be even bigger this time around, as the Kings ride high on their fourth full-length album, “Only By the Night.” The record debuted at No. 4 on the Billboard Top 200 and No. 1 on the Billboard Digital Albums chart, selling 74,353 copies, marking the highest debut and the largest single sales week ever for the band in the U.S.

In the U.K., where they’re considered rock royalty, Kings of Leon mania continues to spread like a fever, with “Only By the Night” hitting No. 1 on the British charts within a week of its release. The single, “Sex on Fire,” is No. 1 across the pond for the third week in a row.

Not bad for a bunch of homeschooled Southern boys who spent much of their childhoods crisscrossing the Bible Belt between Memphis and Oklahoma City in the backseat of their Pentecostal preacher dad’s purple ’88 Olds, sleeping in the back rooms of rural churches. Nathan admitted in a 2005 interview with The Oklahoman that it was their colorful background that helped hype the band, first in the British press and then in the United States.

“We made a little five-song EP in Memphis, and I guess a publication over there picked it up, but honestly, at the beginning, it was all about the story,” the drummer said. “Three sons of a travelin’ preacher, you know, lived in this world of good and didn’t listen to rock ’n’ roll or watch TV or live the normal life, and we’re plucked from that world and stuck in the world of debauchery that is rock ’n’ roll. They had a field day with the whole good versus evil thing, and I think it was just kind of a novelty to them.”

But the fanzines didn’t have to fabricate the nights of fun and frolic these guys indulged in on the concert trail.

“You take a group of guys between the ages of 17 and 22 and give ’em their passports and basically give ’em a get-out-of-jail-free card around the world, and they’re gonna go crazy, and that’s basically what we did at first,” Nathan said.

Rolling Stone magazine once wrote, “In the U.K., tales of their partying and girl chasing are as popular as their music.”

But it’s Kings of Leon’s music that make them deserving of their success, a mixture of stripped-down, dark, garage-band angularity and wide-open, Southern-fried smoke that sounds like a cross between New York’s tre-cool Strokes and Dixie-rock dinosaurs Lynyrd Skynyrd.

Fans can come up with their own comparisons when Oklahoma City natives Nathan and Matthew, and Memphis-born Caleb and Jared take the stage in Bricktown once again.

IN CONCERT

Kings of Leon.

With: We Are Scientists, The Stills.

When: 6 p.m. Oct. 26.

Where: Coca-Cola Bricktown Events Center, 425 E California.

Tickets: www.okctickets.com.

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