KINGS OF LEON are back to claim their title of rock royalty with a huge headline set at BST Hyde Park and a brand new album.
The Sex On Fire rockers will perform at the festival in central London on Sunday June 30, six weeks after they drop record Can We Please Have Fun.
The massive show will add fuel to the fire of a performance at Glasto too, given they will be in the country on the weekend of the festival.
Brothers Caleb, Jared and Nathan Followill, along with their cousin Matthew will be hoping the album is their seventh No1 after 2021’s When You See Yourself.
And they’ve brought in the big guns to make it happen.
They have teamed up with producer Kid Harpoon, Harry Styles‘s right hand man in the studio as a solo artist.
He also produced a little song called Flowers for Miley Cyrus, which spent ten weeks at No1 last year, so he knows a thing or two about making a brilliant song.
Caleb said: “It was the most enjoyable record I’ve ever been a part of.” Nathan continued: “It’s like we allowed ourselves to be musically vulnerable.
“I love it when a rock band is not embarrassed to admit that every song doesn’t have to be on 11.”
They have now been together for 25 years, and Caleb added: “When you have a band there’s a bond like no other and when you have family, you have a bond like no other.
“We have both of those things. I thought, ‘if we put all our energy toward something, who is gonna stop us — except us?’”
The 12-track album will be out on May 10, while tickets for their show in Hyde Park, where they will be joined by special guest Paolo Nutini, will go on sale next Wednesday.
As well as their smash hit Sex On Fire, they helped soundtrack my coming of age with tunes like Use Somebody and Revelry.
The new record is certainly more grown up, and the band admitted they have calmed down over the past decade or so.
But it may take a few more years for frontman Caleb to get used to being back on stage playing to tens of thousands of fans.
The singer, married to supermodel Lily Aldridge, previously said he couldn’t bear watching himself back, revealing he had begged her to turn off their videos when he caught her watching them.
He said: “I was like, ‘Babe, you gotta turn this off!’ I was blushing so bad I felt like blood was seeping out of my face.”
Caleb added: “I love the perks that come with being the frontman but I don’t love the pressure. I’m always happy to take the back seat.”
That will be tricky when they headline BST, with insiders telling me they expect the show to be a sell-out.
Kings of Leon will play the festival alongside acts including Kylie Minogue, Robbie Williams, Shania Twain and Andrea Bocelli.
Singing along to this lot on a sunny evening with a can or two of lukewarm Carling will be an ultimate summer highlight for me.
