This weekend on 92.9, we are bringing you the Top 10 Kings Leon songs.
10.
Pyro
Come Around Sundown (2010)
Lead singer Caleb Followill explained in a video interview that that this kerosene-crazed track is about a guy who has lost faith in the world in which he lives and he doesn't believe it is as perfect as everyone says. He becomes so disgusted by the world in which he lives that he decides to burn it down.
9.
Waste A Moment
Walls (2016)
This guitar-led anthem finds Caleb Followill telling the story of a fiery waitress and her roguish lover driving from Texas to Hollywood ("all the way from Waco to WE-HO"). He told Q magazine: "The words to that are like a classic Hollywood story. A smalltown kid goes to Los Angeles to chase the lights and find what's out there."
This was released as the lead single of Kings Of Leon's Walls album. Band superstition decrees all their albums contain five syllables so the record's official title is "We Are Like Love Songs."
8.
Reverend
Walls (2016)
Kings of Leon pay tribute to country singer Blaze Foley here. At the age of 39, Foley was shot in the chest and killed by Carey January, the son of Foley's friend Concho January.
"[Foley] was a troubled guy with a really beautiful voice," vocalist Caleb Followill told Entertainment Weekly. "When he sang, it felt like he was talking to you. You wanted to hear what he had to say."
7.
Crawl
Only By the Night (2008)
This song, in which the Kings of Leon evoke an America on its knees, was the band's first political song. Frontman Caleb Followill explained to The Daily Telegraph September 17, 2008: "It honestly feels as if America has to learn how to crawl again before it can walk tall".
Caleb also told Uncut magazine October 2008 the background to this song: "I think that just came from us being a band that pretty much grew up in Europe, and we couldn't really enjoy the success that we had because every time we went to a restaurant, everyone looked at us like we were these people that came from a country that supported war and supported all the terrible, terrible decisions and mistakes that were goin' on in America.
6.
Radioactive
Come Around Sundown (2010)
This song about self-rediscovery is the first single off American rock band Kings Of Leon's fifth studio album titled Come Around Sundown. The record was recorded in New York at Avatar Studios and was produced by Only By The Night producers Angelo Petraglia and Jacquire King.
Bassist Jared Followill told Billboard magazine that although the song has never been released, it has long been in the band's repertoire: "We played it forever. We started playing it around the time right after we wrote [2005's] Aha Shake Heartbreak. It was kind of in between Aha Shake Heartbreak and Because of the Times, and there was actually a few songs like that that didn't make it. You know, we save songs until we get them right."
5.
Supersoaker
Mechanical Bull (2013)
Lead singer Caleb Followill wrote this song at his Tennessee farmhouse after his alcoholism caused the band to cut short their 2011 tour. "I didn't know if it was going to be Kings of Leon or something else, but I got very inspired," he told Entertainment Weekly. "I remember coming up with the guitar part and it feeling throwback like something off of [2004 album] Aha Shake Heartbreak. So I started writing about those times, about one person in particular from another band and how they lost their inspiration."
Me-chan-i-cal Bull carries on the Kings' tradition of five syllable album titles following Youth And Young Man-hood, A-ha Shake Heart-break, Be-cause Of The Times, On-ly By The Night and Come A-round Sun-down.
4.
Reverly
Only By the Night (2009)
In an interview with The Village Voice, vocalist Caleb Followill described this piano-led bluesy ballad, where he is voicing his regrets at a relationship ending because of his love of partying, as "sad." Caleb penned the lyrics through a haze of prescription painkillers, which he was taking because of an injury to his shoulder. He told The Village Voice that the painkillers influenced his songwriting. Caleb explained: "It's kind of like you feel good but it's the kind of good feeling that brings about kind of sad emotions, things like that. I hold a lot in. I'm not the kind of guy that cries and stuff like that. Not that that's a good thing. But, you know, after I've had a few drinks and I have a songbook in front of me, a lot of times I'll kind of talk to myself a little bit, you know, and kind of point a finger at myself, and usually that's the most emotion that comes out of me."
3.
Notion
Only By the Night (2008)
This song is an attack on people who diss the band. According to the King of Leon's website it "finds the singer pushing back against anyone who says anything against anyone in his band" and was written and recorded in one take.
Frontman Caleb Followill told The Village Voice that this was the track on Only By The Night that took him the least time to write. He explained: "One soundcheck we all played our parts. Like I started playing the melody on the guitar, just kind of found the chords, and literally everyone one at a time jumped in. Then I sang it, and we finished and I asked my soundman if he recorded it, and he said, 'Yeah,' and there's the song."
2.
Use Somebody
Only By the Night (2008)
Frontman Caleb Followill wrote this song about longing for somebody to have a cuddle with while feeling lonely on the road. He said on his band's website: "It's about being far from home".
Caleb told Uncut magazine October 2008 the story of the song: "The meat of song was written on tour. When I came up with 'I could use somebody,' I didn't know if I was talking about a person or home or God. I felt immediately that it was a big song, and it scared me away. Then, when we were writing the record, Matthew kept sayin', 'What's that song, man?', and I acted like I didn't know what he was talking about. Then, finally, I went, 'All right, we'll do it,' and as soon as we started playin' it, the producers looked up and said, 'Whoa, that's a good song.' I was like, 'OK.'"
1.
Sex On Fire
Only By the Night (2008)
Caleb told The Sun that he was surprised the record label picked this as lead single from Only By the Night. Said the lead vocalist: "I can't believe the label picked it because the lyrics are pretty in-your-face sexual. I think my girlfriend hopes it's based on her. Maybe it is my girlfriend because we've had some good times together... but I'm not really sure."
The reason for Caleb's uncertainty, regarding to whom the lyrics were directed to, is that he penned them through a haze of prescription painkillers. He was taking them as a result of an injury to his shoulder, following a fight with one of his brothers.