get back on track, pick me up some bottles of booze
Hello. :) It's your friendly neighbourhood incestuous-RPF enthusiast, here, bringing yet another post about brothers who should be screwing if they aren't already, and trying to convince you to ship them.
Okay but let me preface this by saying: Kings of Leon are a really recent obsession for me. I've only properly been listening to them for the past week or so, and it was only yesterday that I like, found out their names and stuff. SO this might be kind of like that Tokio Hotel spam post I made, where I was all I DON'T FIND BILL ATTRACTIVE! and I DON'T LIKE THEIR MUSIC! and I HAVEN'T READ ANY FIC YET! And then all of that changed within about a day.
So basically, things might change, I will probably discover more about these guys, this isn't like, an all-inclusive introduction to the band or anything.
This is Kings of Leon. Left to right, that's Matthew, Caleb, Nathan and Jared. Nathan, Caleb and Jared are all brothers (that's in age order from eldest to youngest), and Matthew is their cousin.
Nathan and Caleb are the main focus of this entry, ngl. They just sort of FASCINATE me. And they're hot, too! No, really! I'm one of those people who totally FAILS at understanding the concept of 'conventional beauty' and usually I have totally bizarre taste, but...well, I can SEE that Jared is probably the most conventionally attractive of the group. And yet for some reason...I think maybe I find Nathan the best-looking? Is that weird? I don't know. He reminds me of my ex-boyfriend, Y. ANYWAY here they are looking slightly confused and uncomfortable about having their picture taken. That's pretty much their default expressions, btw.
A while ago (idk when, I haven't got a coherent timeline for these guys yet) Nathan had an epic beard and Caleb had long hair. Here's a boring story: years ago, when my BFF and I were first getting to know each other, she mentioned Kings of Leon to me and said she and her Mum really loved them and they'd been to see them a few times. And ALL I remember her saying is that they had long hair and beards and were really Southern and drunk all the time, and always seemed confused that people turned up at their gigs at all.
I really want to call her up and talk to her about them now, right, but because she's one of those fans who's been there from the beginning I feel she might think they've 'sold out' and not like them so much anymore now they're popular. And then it'd be awkward that when she lent me a CD a few years ago I was like "meh" and now that they've become popular, I love them. WHATEVER. Here they are in phoneboxes!
Beard!
BB!KINGS OF LEON. Adorable.
Nathan and Matthew.
Jared. Remember what I said about 'conventionally attractive'? I see the pretty here, and I like it, and I actually discovered I had this picture saved for several months without knowing who he was JUST BECAUSE HE'S PRETTY, but...eh, he's a little bit boring for me.
...Nathan, on the other hand...
This picture is so, so pretty.
This is them recording 'Sex on Fire', and, okay, that song has taken on an entirely different meaning to me since thepodsquad wrote up a bit of their Rolling Stone article for me. I shall quote:
Caleb, and Nathan Followill don’t fight very often, but when they do, get the hell out of the way. One night in 2007, the brothers - at 27 and 29, respectively, the two eldest members of Kings of Leon - arrived home after a night of heavy drinking in Nashville. What precipitated the fight, no one remembers exactly, but “I had just walked in the front door when I heard pots and pans falling everywhere,” says their cousin and guitar tech Nacho. “I ran into the kitchen , and Nate and Caleb had handfuls of hair, just rolling in grease in front of the stove.” Nacho eventually separated the brothers, sequestering Caleb, who’d dislocated his shoulder, in the adjacent greenhouse. But Nathan was still going ballistic. He shattered a $7000 mirror in Caleb’s bedroom and repeatedly stabbed his brother’s mattress with a kitchen knife. “Nathan definitely gets psychotic when it comes to fights,” says their younger brother, Jared, 22, who plays bass in the band. “He’s like the American Psycho - he’s told me that one day he’ll kill Caleb.”
The following morning, Caleb, the band’s singer and lyricist, and Nathan, the drummer, made peace. “I love ya, bro,” Nathan told him. I’ll pay for everything I broke.” But the brawl also had an upside: It led to Caleb writing the group’s biggest song yet, “Sex on Fire,” the smash anthem that has helped the Kings’ latest Album, Only by the Night, sell more than 2 million copies worldwide. “I came up with that song fresh out of shoulder surgery,” says Caleb in his hushed Southern drawl. “The doctor told me not to play guitar for nine months, but within a week I’d popped my sling off.”
Because, okay, in my mind now? Caleb and Nathan totally had AMAZING angry!sex during all this. Maybe it's just the way the journalist phrased that but...seriously. At the end of the video Nathan says he doesn't know where Caleb got the lyrics for that song because he's 'pretty sure he's saving himself for marriage' ahaha. And then he says it must just all be a fantasy of how he imagines it'll go, and 'he's onto something because it's only a minute and half song and he apologises at the end'. Amazing.
Also let's take a moment to lol at Caleb's moustache.
Whew. Okay. SO MUCH TO SAY ABOUT THIS. First of all, I had not seen the 'Sex on Fire' video until I saw this, which is the 'making of' video or whatever. And like...okay. How did I go so long without even WONDERING what the video was like? I honestly remember sitting in my cousins' living room when everyone was at school/work, DOING A JIGSAW with music channels on, and this came on, and I barely paid it any attention. I don't think I even looked up. I think I changed the channel like thirty seconds in. WHAT WAS WRONG WITH YOU, PAST SELF?!
But yes. Basically, the video...is hot. Caleb is writhing around all sweaty and that's interspersed with shots of Nathan, shirtless, under a shower. Also, chickens. This video, it's Jared talking about it, and, well-
"For the most part, it was Nathan holding down Caleb, or at least for the first half of the day, and they were getting pretty intense. I think they were drunk or something, they got a little physical for a second, it was a little uncomfortable to watch, and Caleb ripped Nathan's shirt, and in between fighting every once in a while they would break into big time kissing."
OKAY FIRST OF ALL, LOL, THIS BAND'S SENSE OF HUMOUR. I DON'T EVEN KNOW. But...woah, okay, I really kind of love the fact that Caleb and Nathan fight all the time? I really like it when siblings I ship are like, constantly happy and loving each other, and say they never ever fight, but...I think I love it more when they're like this. Tom and Bill Kaulitz have admitted to attacking each other with frying pans, and then making up and everything being fine the next morning. Emily and Katie Fitch (in Skins) are a good example too, in fictional terms, because they really DO NOT get on and it just adds a much more interesting dynamic, idk.
Also! The video is just generally pretty awesome. Jared tearing pages out of the bible, not realising it was the bible, and then feeling weird afterwards? AMAZING. Matthew eating the chicken because '...he just really wanted to eat some chicken'? LOL.
And, speaking of these fights:
I LOVE EVERY SINGLE BIT OF THIS.
Just an extra bit of love. ♥
Caleb goes to physical therapy because of Nathan fucking up his shoulder during the aforementioned epic fight and angry!sex.
UM OKAY. Also. I might maybe just have a bit of an obsession with brothers who are in bands secretly writing songs about each other (Hanson's 'Georgia', the Jonas Brothers' 'A Little Bit Longer', Tokio Hotel's 'Reden') but I was just listening to 'Sex on Fire' properly again and looked up the lyrics and...it's now SERIOUS personal canon that Caleb wrote this about Nathan. Observe:
Lay where you're laying, don't make a sound
I know they're watching, they're watching
All the commotion, the kiddie-like play
Has people talking, talking
You, your sex is on fire
The dark of the alley, the breaking of day
The head while I'm driving, I'm driving
Soft lips are open, knuckles are pale
Feels like you're dying, you're dying
You, your sex is on fire
Consumed with what's to transpire
Hot as a fever, rattling bones
I could just taste it, taste it
If it's not forever, if it's just tonight
Oh, it's still the greatest, the greatest, the greatest
You, your sex is on fire
And you, your sex is on fire
Consumed with what's to transpire
And you, your sex is on fire
Consumed with what's to transpire
...Okay, so, people were obviously there during the fight, right? Because Nacho, at least, (lol Nacho) came in to break it up? And 'all the commotion, the kiddie-like play'...that's like, brothers fighting when they're young! Sibling rivalry! Right?! And the stuff about knuckles being pale and feeling like you're dying = fighting! Clenched fists! Dislocated shoulders! 'Rattling bones'! IT MAKES SENSE TO ME, OKAY.
...Further research weakens my theory a little but I'm standing by it anyway.
Also just as a sidenote, it took until this very moment, copy-pasting those lyrics, for me to realise the meaning of 'the head while I'm driving'. THIS BAND IS DIRTY. Actually it's taken me a surprisingly long time to really process the meaning of a lot of their songs, like 'Soft'. Maybe I'm more innocent than I thought. I just seem to listen without quite GETTING it right away.
First of all, I could totally listen to Caleb Followill's voice just...forever. I kind of want him to just sit in my room and talk about random stuff when I'm going to sleep, because there's seriously just something really soothing about it. It's all lazy and lilting and, idk. But yes! They were all drunk while recording Cold Desert, him especially, to the point where he forgot they'd even recorded it. And then they played it for him and he almost cried.
And he says that all he remembers about the recording session is singing 'Jesus don't love me', and getting chillbumps and wanting to kick himself for ever saying that. And he sniffs and he sounds close to tears and THIS IS INTENSE STUFF, YOU GUYS. It's like a THERAPY SESSION OR SOME SHIT. The song means like 128942836x more to me now. In another interview he's said that he didn't even write lyrics for it, really, he was just a drunk guy singing what was on his mind. :'(
This...appears to be them talking with Nathan, Caleb and Jared's parents about...balls. It's too bizarre not to share, okay. Their Mum is saying how she was 'whoopin' Nate with the belt' once and caught his balls by mistake. D: And then the whole conversation deteriorates into HILARIOUS INSANITY.
There are more videos like this here, I just picked some of my favourites. WATCH ALL OF THEM IF YOU HAVE THE TIME THOUGH.
I feel like this ENTIRE ENTRY fails so far because I haven't actually uploaded any songs. Like, with the Jonas Brothers and Tokio Hotel, I figure it's okay to be in the fandom or shipping whoever even if you don't know/like the music? But with Kings of Leon, THAT WOULD BE A CRIME. Because they are awesome. So awesome. I really have hardly stopped listening to them for days now. Whenever I turn off my iPod I'm like D: D: but even then, the songs just carry on playing in my head.
But sadly, I'm on my laptop at my Dad's house and have no music to upload here. But, basically, LISTEN TO THEM. I honestly did not like them at first and then BAM, I'm obsessed. So keep trying. It will be worth it. ♥
MORE PICTURES. ALWAYS NECESSARY:
And THIS leads on nicely to my next point:
(Thank you thisissirius for locating this video for me. ♥)
Right. Okay, this SOUNDS weird at first, but honestly it is so true and makes SO MUCH SENSE. Kings of Leon? They are like a bizarro-world version of the Jonas Brothers. They honestly are SO SIMILAR that it's creepy. Like...okay, clearly they are IMMENSELY DIFFERENT right now but, their upbringings are really pretty much the same.
This whole thing is basically what led up to the fic I wrote. The Jonas Brothers LOVE Kings of Leon, IDOLIZE them, to the point where they mention them in interviews, knowing young girls are going to investigate and end up listening to songs that use words like 'cunt' and talk about erectile dysfunction, AND NOT CARING, APPARENTLY. It is awesome. It is so awesome. They are subtly rebelling against Disney, I like to think. I really don't think they'd do this if Kings of Leon didn't MEAN a lot to them, you know? And I really think they must feel some connection there. 'Cause, hello:
Nathan, Caleb, and Jared Followill were born to Leon Followill, a Pentecostal evangelist minister, who traveled around the South. Caleb and Jared were born in Tennessee, while Matthew and Nathan were born in Oklahoma. [4] The brothers spent much of their youth travelling around the South with their father, Leon, a traveling United Pentecostal Church preacher and their mother, Betty Ann, who taught them when they were not in school. The boys learned to play drums, guitar and bass as children while performing gospel songs in the church.
I REALLY SHOULDN'T HAVE TO SAY MUCH MORE.
So they had this INTENSELY REPRESSED childhood, basically, where they weren't allowed to go to the theatre or watch TV, play sports, wear short pants, or listen to any music besides church music. And probably many more restrictions. They're different to the JoBros in that their upbringing was kinda scarier, BUT it also went on without them being in the public eye.
By the time Jared entered kindergarten, Ivan began behaving erratically. “I guess the pressure was getting to my dad, being the leader of the flock,” says Caleb. “Things were really up and down, depending on how his nerves were.” Ivan started drinking. “He was trying to be perfect, but in the process, he was imperfect.” […] According to Nathan, his father was arrested after he spotted a cop speeding through the neighbourhood and bizarrely attempted to make a citizen’s arrest. “I wouldn’t call it a nervous breakdown, but it was about as close as you could get,” says Nathan. As word spread about Ivan’s troubles, the family returned to the road, beginning a four-year itinerant period, with the boys home-schooled by their mother.
OKAY. I can't quite be coherent about this, but, SERIOUSLY, BIZARRO-WORLD VERSION OF THE JONAS BROTHERS. Kings of Leon are like what the Jonas Brothers would become if Papa Jonas went off the rails and became an alcoholic.
TWO MORE PICTURES TO BREAK ALL THIS TEXT UP:
Caleb has settled down since her met Aldridge. His whiskey days are over-now he sticks to wine, beer and the occasional shot of tequila, and his self-destructive alter ego, dubbed “the Rooster” by the rest of the band, hasn’t surfaced for a long time. “When my grandpa Washington was drinking whiskey, he was the same way,” says Caleb. “I’d drink whiskey knowing I was going to turn into [the Rooster], but I didn’t care. I had so many insecurities that stemmed from putting my faith into things that ended up breaking my heart”
When Ivan left the pulpit, Caleb became disillusioned. “I was going to be a preacher - it was everything I knew,” he says. “My heart got broken seeing that it was impossible to be perfect. So I said to myself, ‘I have to go the opposite way.’ I couldn’t be a sober man. When I started getting fucked up, I got fucked up. I thought I was going to hell. I had nightmares about money and girls. The sky would open up and the Lord would take my soul.”
Caleb Followill...IS Nick Jonas, okay. The perfectionism? Desperation to make something of himself? If Nick ever, ever becomes disillusioned like this, you know he'll go all the way and totally break down. GOD, Caleb, just. My heart got broken seeing that it was impossible to be perfect. MY HEART IS BREAKING AT THAT SINGLE LINE, OKAY.
At the Kings of Leon’s farmhouse in rural Tennessee, a few days before the Australian tour, Caleb stands behind the stove, whipping up spaghetti puttanesca. A dented frying pan hangs above his head, a reminder of one of Caleb and Nathan’s brawls from a few years ago. “Caleb is the sorest loser ever,” says Jared. “Every fight that Caleb’s been in has to do with losing in shuffleboard, or getting his ass beat in pool.” The frying-pan fight came after Caleb lost a game of poker and started making fun of Nathan’s date. Nathan attached, and Caleb whacked him across the forehead with the pan, drawing blood. “They’re a weird couple,” says Jared. At 2 a.m., their mom was summoned to break up the fight.
THEY'RE A WEIRD COUPLE. S'all that needs to be said, really. EXCEPT HI, 'making fun of Nathan's date'. That's how that fight started. MAKING FUN OF HIS DATE. Jealousy? I THINK SO.
Caleb and Nathan, who both have places in Nashville, share the property as a second home. They come here to fish in the lake, shoot trap and skeet, cruise around on ATVs and throw parties. The boys plan to build new houses on the property, as well as a studio, a bar and two holes of golf. Nathan wants a “French colonial” country house, and Caleb is leaning toward a Spanish-style villa.
I'm just starting to quote everything thepodsquad typed up, she gets SO MUCH CREDIT FOR THIS OMG. ♥ But yes-shared property! Do you guys remember that one JoBros interview where Joe was like, making it sound like he'd live with his brothers forever and ever? As if none of them would ever get married and nothing would change? PARALLELS, YOU GUYS, PARALLELS.
It's all summed up perfectly, really, by what thepodsquad said: It's sort of like if you took the Jonas Brothers music, digitally rendered it into an image, stuck it in Photoshop and hit ctrl+i to invert it. Everything the Kings of Leon are, the Jonas Brothers have to avoid being. This. It's true. And at the same time, their lives are just ENTWINED somehow by the way they were brought up. It's really like-like how the Jonas Brothers might turn out. Or how they would, if everything went wrong for them.
Kings of Leon, right, I would not want to meet them. I would not want to know anyone even LIKE them. They seem basically INSANE. But I find their whole existence fascinating. Jared got sent to his room all the time when he was discovered smoking weed, and Nathan and Caleb would blow bong hits to him through the vent in the garage. Jared was doing cocaine when he was like fifteen. Basically, they're all alcoholics with past drug problems. It's intense. But it makes it so much more interesting! Like obvs tons of rockstars have drug problems, but the fact that all of this has happened AFTER the childhood they had? FASCINATING, OKAY. SOMEONE NEEDS TO WRITE A BOOK.
Also:
The Jonas Brothers met Kings of Leon at the Grammys this year. Note Joe's EPIC JOY and KOL's general confusion and discomfort.
This has led to MUCH SPECULATION about crossover fic. Jared/Joe because they're both sort of impulsive and ridiculous and hot. Caleb/Nick because they're basically the same person. CALEB/NATHAN AND JOE/NICK IN THE SAME FIC. It's all happening, you guys, and it MAKES SENSE.
What's so depressing is that there is NO FANDOM HERE. We are literally creating it. There's a community for Kings of Leon slash, and it's UTTERLY DEAD. I DO NOT UNDERSTAND WHY. THIS BAND IS SO EASILY SHIPPABLE. Let's ignore the incestuous RPF aspect and how, y'know, that tends to weird people out. IT'S A GOLDMINE, THIS THING. SRSLY.
Okay but let me preface this by saying: Kings of Leon are a really recent obsession for me. I've only properly been listening to them for the past week or so, and it was only yesterday that I like, found out their names and stuff. SO this might be kind of like that Tokio Hotel spam post I made, where I was all I DON'T FIND BILL ATTRACTIVE! and I DON'T LIKE THEIR MUSIC! and I HAVEN'T READ ANY FIC YET! And then all of that changed within about a day.
So basically, things might change, I will probably discover more about these guys, this isn't like, an all-inclusive introduction to the band or anything.
This is Kings of Leon. Left to right, that's Matthew, Caleb, Nathan and Jared. Nathan, Caleb and Jared are all brothers (that's in age order from eldest to youngest), and Matthew is their cousin.
Nathan and Caleb are the main focus of this entry, ngl. They just sort of FASCINATE me. And they're hot, too! No, really! I'm one of those people who totally FAILS at understanding the concept of 'conventional beauty' and usually I have totally bizarre taste, but...well, I can SEE that Jared is probably the most conventionally attractive of the group. And yet for some reason...I think maybe I find Nathan the best-looking? Is that weird? I don't know. He reminds me of my ex-boyfriend, Y. ANYWAY here they are looking slightly confused and uncomfortable about having their picture taken. That's pretty much their default expressions, btw.
A while ago (idk when, I haven't got a coherent timeline for these guys yet) Nathan had an epic beard and Caleb had long hair. Here's a boring story: years ago, when my BFF and I were first getting to know each other, she mentioned Kings of Leon to me and said she and her Mum really loved them and they'd been to see them a few times. And ALL I remember her saying is that they had long hair and beards and were really Southern and drunk all the time, and always seemed confused that people turned up at their gigs at all.
I really want to call her up and talk to her about them now, right, but because she's one of those fans who's been there from the beginning I feel she might think they've 'sold out' and not like them so much anymore now they're popular. And then it'd be awkward that when she lent me a CD a few years ago I was like "meh" and now that they've become popular, I love them. WHATEVER. Here they are in phoneboxes!
Beard!
BB!KINGS OF LEON. Adorable.
Nathan and Matthew.
Jared. Remember what I said about 'conventionally attractive'? I see the pretty here, and I like it, and I actually discovered I had this picture saved for several months without knowing who he was JUST BECAUSE HE'S PRETTY, but...eh, he's a little bit boring for me.
...Nathan, on the other hand...
This picture is so, so pretty.
Click to viewThis is them recording 'Sex on Fire', and, okay, that song has taken on an entirely different meaning to me since thepodsquad wrote up a bit of their Rolling Stone article for me. I shall quote:
Caleb, and Nathan Followill don’t fight very often, but when they do, get the hell out of the way. One night in 2007, the brothers - at 27 and 29, respectively, the two eldest members of Kings of Leon - arrived home after a night of heavy drinking in Nashville. What precipitated the fight, no one remembers exactly, but “I had just walked in the front door when I heard pots and pans falling everywhere,” says their cousin and guitar tech Nacho. “I ran into the kitchen , and Nate and Caleb had handfuls of hair, just rolling in grease in front of the stove.” Nacho eventually separated the brothers, sequestering Caleb, who’d dislocated his shoulder, in the adjacent greenhouse. But Nathan was still going ballistic. He shattered a $7000 mirror in Caleb’s bedroom and repeatedly stabbed his brother’s mattress with a kitchen knife. “Nathan definitely gets psychotic when it comes to fights,” says their younger brother, Jared, 22, who plays bass in the band. “He’s like the American Psycho - he’s told me that one day he’ll kill Caleb.”
The following morning, Caleb, the band’s singer and lyricist, and Nathan, the drummer, made peace. “I love ya, bro,” Nathan told him. I’ll pay for everything I broke.” But the brawl also had an upside: It led to Caleb writing the group’s biggest song yet, “Sex on Fire,” the smash anthem that has helped the Kings’ latest Album, Only by the Night, sell more than 2 million copies worldwide. “I came up with that song fresh out of shoulder surgery,” says Caleb in his hushed Southern drawl. “The doctor told me not to play guitar for nine months, but within a week I’d popped my sling off.”
Because, okay, in my mind now? Caleb and Nathan totally had AMAZING angry!sex during all this. Maybe it's just the way the journalist phrased that but...seriously. At the end of the video Nathan says he doesn't know where Caleb got the lyrics for that song because he's 'pretty sure he's saving himself for marriage' ahaha. And then he says it must just all be a fantasy of how he imagines it'll go, and 'he's onto something because it's only a minute and half song and he apologises at the end'. Amazing.
Also let's take a moment to lol at Caleb's moustache.
Whew. Okay. SO MUCH TO SAY ABOUT THIS. First of all, I had not seen the 'Sex on Fire' video until I saw this, which is the 'making of' video or whatever. And like...okay. How did I go so long without even WONDERING what the video was like? I honestly remember sitting in my cousins' living room when everyone was at school/work, DOING A JIGSAW with music channels on, and this came on, and I barely paid it any attention. I don't think I even looked up. I think I changed the channel like thirty seconds in. WHAT WAS WRONG WITH YOU, PAST SELF?!
But yes. Basically, the video...is hot. Caleb is writhing around all sweaty and that's interspersed with shots of Nathan, shirtless, under a shower. Also, chickens. This video, it's Jared talking about it, and, well-
"For the most part, it was Nathan holding down Caleb, or at least for the first half of the day, and they were getting pretty intense. I think they were drunk or something, they got a little physical for a second, it was a little uncomfortable to watch, and Caleb ripped Nathan's shirt, and in between fighting every once in a while they would break into big time kissing."
OKAY FIRST OF ALL, LOL, THIS BAND'S SENSE OF HUMOUR. I DON'T EVEN KNOW. But...woah, okay, I really kind of love the fact that Caleb and Nathan fight all the time? I really like it when siblings I ship are like, constantly happy and loving each other, and say they never ever fight, but...I think I love it more when they're like this. Tom and Bill Kaulitz have admitted to attacking each other with frying pans, and then making up and everything being fine the next morning. Emily and Katie Fitch (in Skins) are a good example too, in fictional terms, because they really DO NOT get on and it just adds a much more interesting dynamic, idk.
Also! The video is just generally pretty awesome. Jared tearing pages out of the bible, not realising it was the bible, and then feeling weird afterwards? AMAZING. Matthew eating the chicken because '...he just really wanted to eat some chicken'? LOL.
And, speaking of these fights:
I LOVE EVERY SINGLE BIT OF THIS.
Just an extra bit of love. ♥
Caleb goes to physical therapy because of Nathan fucking up his shoulder during the aforementioned epic fight and angry!sex.
UM OKAY. Also. I might maybe just have a bit of an obsession with brothers who are in bands secretly writing songs about each other (Hanson's 'Georgia', the Jonas Brothers' 'A Little Bit Longer', Tokio Hotel's 'Reden') but I was just listening to 'Sex on Fire' properly again and looked up the lyrics and...it's now SERIOUS personal canon that Caleb wrote this about Nathan. Observe:
Lay where you're laying, don't make a sound
I know they're watching, they're watching
All the commotion, the kiddie-like play
Has people talking, talking
You, your sex is on fire
The dark of the alley, the breaking of day
The head while I'm driving, I'm driving
Soft lips are open, knuckles are pale
Feels like you're dying, you're dying
You, your sex is on fire
Consumed with what's to transpire
Hot as a fever, rattling bones
I could just taste it, taste it
If it's not forever, if it's just tonight
Oh, it's still the greatest, the greatest, the greatest
You, your sex is on fire
And you, your sex is on fire
Consumed with what's to transpire
And you, your sex is on fire
Consumed with what's to transpire
...Okay, so, people were obviously there during the fight, right? Because Nacho, at least, (lol Nacho) came in to break it up? And 'all the commotion, the kiddie-like play'...that's like, brothers fighting when they're young! Sibling rivalry! Right?! And the stuff about knuckles being pale and feeling like you're dying = fighting! Clenched fists! Dislocated shoulders! 'Rattling bones'! IT MAKES SENSE TO ME, OKAY.
...Further research weakens my theory a little but I'm standing by it anyway.
Also just as a sidenote, it took until this very moment, copy-pasting those lyrics, for me to realise the meaning of 'the head while I'm driving'. THIS BAND IS DIRTY. Actually it's taken me a surprisingly long time to really process the meaning of a lot of their songs, like 'Soft'. Maybe I'm more innocent than I thought. I just seem to listen without quite GETTING it right away.
First of all, I could totally listen to Caleb Followill's voice just...forever. I kind of want him to just sit in my room and talk about random stuff when I'm going to sleep, because there's seriously just something really soothing about it. It's all lazy and lilting and, idk. But yes! They were all drunk while recording Cold Desert, him especially, to the point where he forgot they'd even recorded it. And then they played it for him and he almost cried.
And he says that all he remembers about the recording session is singing 'Jesus don't love me', and getting chillbumps and wanting to kick himself for ever saying that. And he sniffs and he sounds close to tears and THIS IS INTENSE STUFF, YOU GUYS. It's like a THERAPY SESSION OR SOME SHIT. The song means like 128942836x more to me now. In another interview he's said that he didn't even write lyrics for it, really, he was just a drunk guy singing what was on his mind. :'(
This...appears to be them talking with Nathan, Caleb and Jared's parents about...balls. It's too bizarre not to share, okay. Their Mum is saying how she was 'whoopin' Nate with the belt' once and caught his balls by mistake. D: And then the whole conversation deteriorates into HILARIOUS INSANITY.
There are more videos like this here, I just picked some of my favourites. WATCH ALL OF THEM IF YOU HAVE THE TIME THOUGH.
I feel like this ENTIRE ENTRY fails so far because I haven't actually uploaded any songs. Like, with the Jonas Brothers and Tokio Hotel, I figure it's okay to be in the fandom or shipping whoever even if you don't know/like the music? But with Kings of Leon, THAT WOULD BE A CRIME. Because they are awesome. So awesome. I really have hardly stopped listening to them for days now. Whenever I turn off my iPod I'm like D: D: but even then, the songs just carry on playing in my head.
But sadly, I'm on my laptop at my Dad's house and have no music to upload here. But, basically, LISTEN TO THEM. I honestly did not like them at first and then BAM, I'm obsessed. So keep trying. It will be worth it. ♥
MORE PICTURES. ALWAYS NECESSARY:
And THIS leads on nicely to my next point:
(Thank you thisissirius for locating this video for me. ♥)
Right. Okay, this SOUNDS weird at first, but honestly it is so true and makes SO MUCH SENSE. Kings of Leon? They are like a bizarro-world version of the Jonas Brothers. They honestly are SO SIMILAR that it's creepy. Like...okay, clearly they are IMMENSELY DIFFERENT right now but, their upbringings are really pretty much the same.
This whole thing is basically what led up to the fic I wrote. The Jonas Brothers LOVE Kings of Leon, IDOLIZE them, to the point where they mention them in interviews, knowing young girls are going to investigate and end up listening to songs that use words like 'cunt' and talk about erectile dysfunction, AND NOT CARING, APPARENTLY. It is awesome. It is so awesome. They are subtly rebelling against Disney, I like to think. I really don't think they'd do this if Kings of Leon didn't MEAN a lot to them, you know? And I really think they must feel some connection there. 'Cause, hello:
Nathan, Caleb, and Jared Followill were born to Leon Followill, a Pentecostal evangelist minister, who traveled around the South. Caleb and Jared were born in Tennessee, while Matthew and Nathan were born in Oklahoma. [4] The brothers spent much of their youth travelling around the South with their father, Leon, a traveling United Pentecostal Church preacher and their mother, Betty Ann, who taught them when they were not in school. The boys learned to play drums, guitar and bass as children while performing gospel songs in the church.
I REALLY SHOULDN'T HAVE TO SAY MUCH MORE.
So they had this INTENSELY REPRESSED childhood, basically, where they weren't allowed to go to the theatre or watch TV, play sports, wear short pants, or listen to any music besides church music. And probably many more restrictions. They're different to the JoBros in that their upbringing was kinda scarier, BUT it also went on without them being in the public eye.
By the time Jared entered kindergarten, Ivan began behaving erratically. “I guess the pressure was getting to my dad, being the leader of the flock,” says Caleb. “Things were really up and down, depending on how his nerves were.” Ivan started drinking. “He was trying to be perfect, but in the process, he was imperfect.” […] According to Nathan, his father was arrested after he spotted a cop speeding through the neighbourhood and bizarrely attempted to make a citizen’s arrest. “I wouldn’t call it a nervous breakdown, but it was about as close as you could get,” says Nathan. As word spread about Ivan’s troubles, the family returned to the road, beginning a four-year itinerant period, with the boys home-schooled by their mother.
OKAY. I can't quite be coherent about this, but, SERIOUSLY, BIZARRO-WORLD VERSION OF THE JONAS BROTHERS. Kings of Leon are like what the Jonas Brothers would become if Papa Jonas went off the rails and became an alcoholic.
TWO MORE PICTURES TO BREAK ALL THIS TEXT UP:
Caleb has settled down since her met Aldridge. His whiskey days are over-now he sticks to wine, beer and the occasional shot of tequila, and his self-destructive alter ego, dubbed “the Rooster” by the rest of the band, hasn’t surfaced for a long time. “When my grandpa Washington was drinking whiskey, he was the same way,” says Caleb. “I’d drink whiskey knowing I was going to turn into [the Rooster], but I didn’t care. I had so many insecurities that stemmed from putting my faith into things that ended up breaking my heart”
When Ivan left the pulpit, Caleb became disillusioned. “I was going to be a preacher - it was everything I knew,” he says. “My heart got broken seeing that it was impossible to be perfect. So I said to myself, ‘I have to go the opposite way.’ I couldn’t be a sober man. When I started getting fucked up, I got fucked up. I thought I was going to hell. I had nightmares about money and girls. The sky would open up and the Lord would take my soul.”
Caleb Followill...IS Nick Jonas, okay. The perfectionism? Desperation to make something of himself? If Nick ever, ever becomes disillusioned like this, you know he'll go all the way and totally break down. GOD, Caleb, just. My heart got broken seeing that it was impossible to be perfect. MY HEART IS BREAKING AT THAT SINGLE LINE, OKAY.
At the Kings of Leon’s farmhouse in rural Tennessee, a few days before the Australian tour, Caleb stands behind the stove, whipping up spaghetti puttanesca. A dented frying pan hangs above his head, a reminder of one of Caleb and Nathan’s brawls from a few years ago. “Caleb is the sorest loser ever,” says Jared. “Every fight that Caleb’s been in has to do with losing in shuffleboard, or getting his ass beat in pool.” The frying-pan fight came after Caleb lost a game of poker and started making fun of Nathan’s date. Nathan attached, and Caleb whacked him across the forehead with the pan, drawing blood. “They’re a weird couple,” says Jared. At 2 a.m., their mom was summoned to break up the fight.
THEY'RE A WEIRD COUPLE. S'all that needs to be said, really. EXCEPT HI, 'making fun of Nathan's date'. That's how that fight started. MAKING FUN OF HIS DATE. Jealousy? I THINK SO.
Caleb and Nathan, who both have places in Nashville, share the property as a second home. They come here to fish in the lake, shoot trap and skeet, cruise around on ATVs and throw parties. The boys plan to build new houses on the property, as well as a studio, a bar and two holes of golf. Nathan wants a “French colonial” country house, and Caleb is leaning toward a Spanish-style villa.
I'm just starting to quote everything thepodsquad typed up, she gets SO MUCH CREDIT FOR THIS OMG. ♥ But yes-shared property! Do you guys remember that one JoBros interview where Joe was like, making it sound like he'd live with his brothers forever and ever? As if none of them would ever get married and nothing would change? PARALLELS, YOU GUYS, PARALLELS.
It's all summed up perfectly, really, by what thepodsquad said: It's sort of like if you took the Jonas Brothers music, digitally rendered it into an image, stuck it in Photoshop and hit ctrl+i to invert it. Everything the Kings of Leon are, the Jonas Brothers have to avoid being. This. It's true. And at the same time, their lives are just ENTWINED somehow by the way they were brought up. It's really like-like how the Jonas Brothers might turn out. Or how they would, if everything went wrong for them.
Kings of Leon, right, I would not want to meet them. I would not want to know anyone even LIKE them. They seem basically INSANE. But I find their whole existence fascinating. Jared got sent to his room all the time when he was discovered smoking weed, and Nathan and Caleb would blow bong hits to him through the vent in the garage. Jared was doing cocaine when he was like fifteen. Basically, they're all alcoholics with past drug problems. It's intense. But it makes it so much more interesting! Like obvs tons of rockstars have drug problems, but the fact that all of this has happened AFTER the childhood they had? FASCINATING, OKAY. SOMEONE NEEDS TO WRITE A BOOK.
Also:
The Jonas Brothers met Kings of Leon at the Grammys this year. Note Joe's EPIC JOY and KOL's general confusion and discomfort.
This has led to MUCH SPECULATION about crossover fic. Jared/Joe because they're both sort of impulsive and ridiculous and hot. Caleb/Nick because they're basically the same person. CALEB/NATHAN AND JOE/NICK IN THE SAME FIC. It's all happening, you guys, and it MAKES SENSE.
What's so depressing is that there is NO FANDOM HERE. We are literally creating it. There's a community for Kings of Leon slash, and it's UTTERLY DEAD. I DO NOT UNDERSTAND WHY. THIS BAND IS SO EASILY SHIPPABLE. Let's ignore the incestuous RPF aspect and how, y'know, that tends to weird people out. IT'S A GOLDMINE, THIS THING. SRSLY.