You may recall the Kings of Leon’s early hits, such as 2007’s Charmer, which featured Caleb Followill’s trademark gravelly voice screeching over rock ‘n’ roll guitar chords. Well, a lot has changed.
After 25 years of creating music, the band has become considerably more relaxed as the Tennessee-born members – brothers Kaleb, Nathan, and Jared, as well as cousin Matthew – approach middle age.
But Jared Followill has recently reproduced some of his brother’s legendary guttural screeches – this time over his actual fear of a wasp, rather than in the spirit of rock ‘n’ roll.
Bassist Jared, 37, released an extraordinary video – shot by his wife of 12 years Martha Patterson – in which he lets off the most thunderous screech while attempting to deal with a wasp using kitchen paper.
Martha is seen giggling to herself on the sofa as the couple’s four-year-old daughter Adeline James runs in, clearly startled by her father’s reaction.
Little Adeline ran to save her rockstar dad, yelling ‘Daddy!’ when she heard the scream, but by the time she got into their living room, Jared had already legged it away from the small beast.
‘Dad!’ she said on arrival, ‘Are you okay?!’
Adding to the comedy of the moment, Jared firmly responded: ‘No. Get away from there,’ as Martha laughed along at the unlikely situation, and her husband eventually saw the funny side after a heavy sigh.
Jared took to social media with the hilarious video, and captioned it with a self-depreciating comment.
‘You can do all the manly things in the world. But when a wasp touches your face and you scream like this in front of your family, it all goes out the window,’ he quipped.
‘I have a lot of work to do to regain their respect as the man of the house.’
Ironically, the band’s 2024 album release Can We Please Have Fun’s first single repeats the lyrics, ‘Are you a mustang or a Kitty?’
Fans were delighted to pick up on this in the comments section of Jared’s video post, as user seannluiss included a few laughing emoji and asked: ‘Are you a Mustang or a Kitty?’
‘I laughed so dang hard. All 7 times I watched it!!’ commented nikkivthompson, while white_winter_hymnal_soul said: ‘Are you okay? NO GET AWAY FROM THERE.’
‘This made my day already, hahahahahahahaha,’ wrote sassy_fairy, while livehappy_maggie said: ‘I’ve watched this soooo many times.’
Can We Please Have Fun is the band’s ninth studio album, due out on May 10.
The Use Somebody rockers will be in the UK this year for a performance at BST Hyde Park on June 30, with other icons such as Stevie Nicks and Kylie Minogue, who will all be performing over several weekends throughout the summer.
The Molly’s Chamber hitmakers will also tour Leeds, Birmingham, Bristol, and Glasgow in June, as well as open for the Silverstone Grand Prix in July, before moving on to Dublin, Nottingham, and Manchester.
Kings of Leon enjoy performing in the United Kingdom since it is where their fan base began to grow before they broke through in America.
In fact, their song Fans is dedicated to their British fans, with the lyrics: ‘All of London sing / ‘Cause England swings and they sure love the tales I bring / And those rainy days they ain’t so bad when you’re the King / The King they want to see.’
Lead singer Caleb told The Sun in 2021: ‘We consider [the UK] our homebase. Our fans in the UK have always been there for us and stuck with us through thick and thin.’
