"We thought that was funny," says Caleb, 21, "but if we were going to make up a story, we'd probably make up something a little more glamorous." These days, they lead a dual existence - still up-and-coming in the US, where the album has sold some 80,000 copies in Europe, bona fide rock stars. The story of the brothers' upbringing is so steeped in rootsy southern gothic romance that some writers have implied that it's all too good to be true. "But part of it is fiction as well, because we have wild imaginations."
"Each song has a part of us in it," says Nathan, the eldest brother at 23, though he seems older. The lyrics evoke stories from the underbelly of southern life - experiences the boys had, characters they met and tales they heard on the road, of bar-room brawls and murders, of whorehouses, fallen men and loose women (and, on the track Trani, a woman who turns out to be a man). It has all the craggy authenticity of swamp rockers Credence Clearwater Revival, recast with the rawness and thrashing energy of a garage rock band. Kings Of Leon's debut album, Youth & Young Manhood, is a masterpiece of rough, dirty blues and rockabilly riffs. Soon they were joined by cousin Matthew Followill on guitar and little brother Jared on bass. Nathan played drums and Caleb sang and played guitar together they came up with some songs. T he Followill brothers, Nathan, Caleb and Jared, were brought up on the road in the American south by their mother and Pentecostal preacher father, travelling from one one-horse town to another, sleeping in cars or at relatives' homes between preaching engagements, until their alcoholic father was defrocked and it was time to do their own thing.
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