Kings Of Leon are currently in Australia for a whistle-stop promotional tour for their sixth and latest album, Mechanical Bull.
The band play an ‘intimate’ date at Sydney’s Enmore Theatre – a show that sold out in 40 seconds flat, according to promoters Frontier Touring – and ahead of playing their theatre-sized concert, members of the Followill plan have slagged off the state of pop music while hinting at plans to return for a full Australian tour in 2014.
The Nashville quartet have slammed highly sexualised pop stars as “making the world a bad place”, while claiming that hits from chart-straddling singers are “not even music,” in an interview with the Sydney Morning Herald.
While they don’t name names, its clear that Kings Of Leon may be hinting at pop stars like Miley Cyrus and Lady Gaga in their attack, with Matthew Followill complaining that “some pop shows I watch, it feels like the end of the world, it’s fucking awful.”
“It’s not even music any more,” continues the 29-year-old guitarist. “You would never want your children to watch [shows like that] and I can’t believe that younger kids, even teenagers are watching that stuff. It almost seems to be making the world a bad place.” “It’s rock solid that we’re coming to tour Australia in 2014 for sure… hopefully it’s in the summer.”
Matthew’s bass-playing cousin Jared Followill reinforced his bandmate’s disdain of big star pop concerts; “they make me cringe. I can’t watch that stuff. Not even just because they’re taking their clothes off it’s the whole thing, the dance moves, it’s not good.”
The comments whiff just a bid of hypocrisy – while Kings of Leon are hardly stripping off on stage, they haven’t been without their controversies surrounding cliched rock star excess in recnt years, including cancelling entire tours, frontman Caleb’s ‘troubled’ drunken antics, and even rumours of rehab stints and band break-ups.
But the Followills quash rumours they were ever poster boys for bad rock n roll habits, or at the very least have since cleaned up their act.
“We are good boys most of the time,” explains Matthew, “[On Sunday] I was in my room from 7.30pm watching TV. I hate the whole ‘rock star’ thing.” While Jared says that unlike other celebrity musicians, they don’t “buy into” the high life.
“There are alot of people who buy into their own hype and they become dicks,” he said. “I have always cringed at the term ‘rock star’ and now it’s been taken over by hip hop,” says the bassist (echoing statements from Kanye “I am the world’s biggest rock star” West).
“We are the most boring band,” the bass player adds. “We are polite and always show up on time and if we ever cancel it’s for a good reason.”
As for Kings Of Leon’s two-date Sydney stopover, the two Followills confirm that it’s a warm-up for a fully fledged return Down Under next year. “It’s rock solid that we’re coming to tour Australia in 2014 for sure,” says Matthew, “we’re just not sure exactly when yet… but hopefully it’s in the summer.”
Jared added his excitement at the band’s 2014 Australian Tour; “We fell in love with Australia when we came here for a Big Day Out in 2004 and we’ve never complained one time about coming to Australia and it is a fucking shitty flight, with shitty jetlag,” he explains. “[But] we fucking love coming here.”
Singer/guitarist Caleb also confirmed the tour plans would stretch beyond New South Wales for next year, telling Triple J hosts Veronica And Lewis that “if we come all this way we’re definitely gonna bring our families and have fun,” with dates in “Brisbane, Perth, Gold Coast, Melbourne, Adelaide. The whole deal.”
