Kings Of Leon Set Out To Extend Reign To U.S. 

February 12, 2005 
BRIAN GARRITY

For Kings of Leon, fame is a relative thing.

The four-piece rock outfit from Tennessee has achieved platinum sales in the United Kingdom, where the group is a bona fide sensation. The band served as the penultimate act at last summer's Glastonbury Festival, and it counts rock royalty like Mick Jagger, Bono and Elton John among its fans.

However, in its hometown of Nashville and elsewhere in the United States, the band continues to toil in semi-obscurity as it waits on its first North American hit.

"Fame is where you are," Kings of Leon drummer Nathan Followill says. "Obviously we would love to be huge in America, but we've had a blast touring the world, and we've already sold more records than we ever dreamed we would."

The band—a family affair comprising Followill, his brothers Caleb (vocals/rhythm guitar) and Jared (bass) and cousin Matthew (lead guitar)—is about to take its second shot at breaking in the United States with the Feb. 22 release of "Aha Shake Heartbreak" (RCA), the critically hailed follow-up to 2003's "Youth and Young Manhood."

Based on early indications, Kings of Leon's stateside profile may be about to change.

The band landed the much-coveted opening slot on the spring leg of U2's tour that kicks off in March. In addition, influential alternative radio stations in Los Angeles, Boston, Seattle, San Diego and Portland, Ore., have been early champions of the album's first single, "The Bucket," by picking it up ahead of the track's Jan. 31 radio impact date.

With a headlining club tour of its own in February, a 15-page photo spread in Rolling Stone's spring fashion issue and TV dates on "Late Show With David Letterman" and "Late Night With Conan O'Brien" pending, RCA executives hope Kings of Leon will establish a stronger connection with American audiences.

To be sure, expectations at RCA are running high as the challenge to break the band in the States is formidable. The label reports it has sold 765,000 million copies of "Youth and Young Manhood" around the world, including more than 408,000 units in the United Kingdom, while "Aha Shake Heartbreak" has sold more than 270,000 units in the U.K. alone since its release in November.
By contrast, "Youth" sold 122,000 units in the United States, according to Nielsen SoundScan.

"It's our goal to get them to a place as big here as they are in the U.K., which sounds funny because they are an American band," RCA marketing director Brad Oldham says.

The label is looking to use the exposure from the U2 tour slot (secured after the two bands appeared on a British TV program late last year) to further build the act's radio profile, something the group struggled with the last time out.

RCA senior VP of A&R Steve Ralbovsky says that with "Youth and Young Manhood" the band was pejoratively characterized as too Southern rock or too garage or too much like the Strokes, or some combination of the three.

"It was an anathema to most of your modern rock programmers. They would say, 'This just isn't the sound of my radio station,'" he says. "This time around it feels like our presentation is stronger and radio is more receptive."

RCA's pitch is bolstered by rapturous advance reviews for "Aha Shake Heartbreak." The band—which is managed by Ken Levitan and Andy Mendelsohn of Vector Management and published by Windswept Music—again worked with producer Ethan Johns (Ryan Adams, Ben Kweller) and received co-production from songwriter/producer Angelo.

"We definitely knew going into it that we were much further along as musicians than on 'Youth and Young Manhood,'" Nathan Followill says. "With the first record we were just happy to get through a song without messing up. This record we knew what we wanted."