First steps

Kings of Leon is an American rock band that formed in Nashville, Tennessee, in 1999. The band is composed of brothers Caleb, Nathan and Jared Followill with their cousin Matthew Followill.

The band's early music was a blend of Southern rock and blues influences, but it has gradually evolved throughout the years into a more alternative, arena rock sound. Kings of Leon achieved initial success in the United Kingdom with nine Top 40 singles, two BRIT Awards in 2008, and all three of the band's albums at the time peaked in the top five of the UK Albums Chart.

Road to success

After the release of Only by the Night in September 2008 the band achieved chart success in the United States. The album was their first Platinum-selling album in the United States, later being certified platinum nine times.

Their latest work is the seventh studio album, WALLS, which was released on October 14, 2016. The group has 12 Grammy Award nominations, including 4 wins.

Childhood

The three Followill brothers (Matthew is their cousin) grew up in Oklahoma and Tennessee with their father, Ivan Leon Followill, a United Pentecostal Church preacher, and their mother, Betty-Ann. According to Rolling Stone magazine, "While Ivan preached at churches and tent revivals throughout Oklahoma and the Deep South, his boys attended services and were occasionally enlisted to bang on some drums".

They were either home-schooled by their mother, or enrolled in small parochial schools at this time. Except for a five-year period when they settled in Jackson, Tennessee, the Followills' childhoods were spent driving through the southern United States in a purple 1988 Oldsmobile, c amping for a week or two wherever Ivan was scheduled to preach.

Becoming young adults

When the boys' father resigned from preaching and their parents divorced in 1997, Nathan and Caleb relocated to outside Nashville and originally embraced country music. While there, they met songwriter Angelo Petraglia, who helped the siblings hone their songwriting skills and introduced them to the musical influences of Thin Lizzy, the Rolling Stones and the Clash in particular.

The youngest of the three boys, Jared, was more influenced by the music of the Pixies and the Velvet Underground. When he and their cousin Matthew also moved to Nashville in 1999, Kings of Leon was formed.

They named the band after their grandfather Leon, who died in January 2014.