![]() The boys toured for two years as one of the biggest bands on the planet, watching the money roll in, and tweeting continually about how much booze they were throwing back. Still, the brothers protested the sell-out label, claiming, for instance, that they’d turned down offers from Glee, insisting, as Jared did, “We could have sold out so much more!”Įveryone knows what happened next. However, the Followills themselves acknowledged that for every fan they alienated with any change in their sound or personal grooming, they gained five others, a sentiment that didn’t sit well with those original fans. Their old fans, angry that their Kings discovered razors and hit radio, vowed to skip KOL’s first headlining slot at Bonnaroo. The band’s two fanbases are, in fact, almost completely mutually exclusive. That is, Greek Row, Taylor Swift, your sister-in-law, and the legions who discovered the Kings after “Sex on Fire” blew up. With songs about drug benders and transvestites, the Kings were raw and weird and hirsute enough to remain off the radar of mainstream audiences and to therefore retain the approval of integrity watchdogs. ![]() The first group: poorly-shaved indie and jam purists who fell for the Followills first three albums - an unruly mix of Southern twang and third-generation mod rock. ![]() The boys were suddenly enormous, headlining the major festivals, selling out arenas, and going platinum in a dozen countries. But then came, Only By the Night in 2008, an album of more polished songcraft and arrangements, full of soaring anthems, including a pair global smashes, “Sex on Fire” and “Use Somebody”. After all, the Followills spent years passing on opportunities to “sell out”, presumably by refusing to compromise their scruffy indie integrity for instance, in 2007, just as their stock was ready to explode, they took a left turn by releasing Because of the Times, their noisiest, most-expansive album to date. ![]() ![]() Every seat in the house, every time we play.” Then-bassist Jason Newsted offered a candid response to those charges: “Yes, we sell out. In the ’90s, after Metallica’s Black Album led to an explosion in Metallica’s mainstream popularity, the band was met with the obligatory accusations of selling out. ![]()
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