Kings of Leon's Caleb Followill on the band's 'most Tennessee' record they've ever made

Kings of Leon singer and guitarist Caleb Followill describes the band's ninth studio album that released May 10, "Can We Please Have Fun" with words like "solid." "Honest." "Happy."

And "local."

"I made a point in the writing to make sure that I was honest and local with all of my references," Followill told The Tennessean. "So I'm not singing about California or New York. Everything is very Nashville based. I reference Sylvan Park and Sperry's Steakhouse. So, yeah, I feel like this is the most Tennessee record we've ever made."

Originally from Memphis, Caleb along with brothers Nathan and Jared and cousin Matthew, all call Nashville home and have written and recorded multiple other records here. But Caleb Followill says this one may be his favorite for a number of reasons beginning with the mindset.

"My favorite thing about this album is the fact that we went into it with with something in mind," he said. "We had a goal to do something that was great and something that was bigger than what we had done before and the fact that we accomplished that — and we still feel like there's meat on the bone is great. We still have songs that didn't make the cut that we can't wait to get in and record at some point."

'Can We Please Have Fun?' I think they just did.

The five words that make up the album title aren't random or flippant. They honestly set the tone for the mentality that permeated the band throughout the writing and recording the follow-up to 2021’s "When You See Yourself."

This time, the Grammy-winning band members wanted to be sure they enjoyed the process. Being in between record labels at the time freed them up to create without any parameters.

"It was just kind of a message that I had for the guys, you know, 'can we please have fun?' Because I wanted us to enjoy the process. I really felt like the material was going to be solid and I didn't want us to get in our own way and second guess things. I had a feeling if we all got on the same page, we were actually gonna do what we set out to do in the beginning.

"Our main objective is to create something that, that, like I say, brings people together and, and, uh, makes people happy."

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New label, new tour, new music, new perspective

The band recently signed a new record deal with Capitol Records and will later this year embark on a 26-city world tour that will bring the guys home to Nashville's Bridgestone Arena Sept. 26.

Followill said the band has enjoyed doing everything themselves from conceptualizing the tour to merchandise and music videos.

"There's that level of excitement because everything has our fingerprints on it. And we're going to carry that over into live show. We're not just bringing you a concert. We're going to try to bring some theater and we're really just trying to take everything up about 10 notches."

He said after enduring COVID, when it was possible all of the band's opportunities could go away, the Followills emerged from that experience with a new respect for any and all opportunities that lie ahead.

"So if people are going to get out of their house and out of their comfort zones and spend their hard-earned money to come watch us play a concert, I want them to leave there saying 'I can't wait till they come back to town so we can do it all over again.'"

Kings of making rock music out of Nashville

The Followills were among the early pioneers of making rock music out of Nashville as opposed to New York or Los Angeles. They just happened to live here, but being in Nashville could have been a help or a hinderance in the early days.

Followill said it was a little bit of both.

"We were definitely the rock band in Nashville," he said. "Now there's, there's a few more familiar faces around here, but, it was helpful in the fact that there was studios and there were a lot of people that ware writing country songs or playing on country songs or producing country records who at least back in the day they all kind of wanted to be rockers."

He said there was a support system in place that bands in other cities didn't have. Followill remembered the rock music scene being a bit "underground," but it was still better than being in a town where it's hard to find a place to buy a guitar.

"We used the benefits of being here and at the same time, we definitely got some funny looks for the way that we were dressing around town."

Nashville Rocks is a new series by music writer Melonee Hurt that explores all of the people making rock music out of Nashville. We’ll share can’t-miss stories and go behind the scenes with the artists, writers, producers and players keeping rock alive from Nashville. Tune down, turn it up and dig in.

This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Kings of Leon 'Can We Please Have Fun' includes Nashville references