Kings of Leon dropped a surprise set of music last week, an EP simply title EP #2. Produced by the band, it’s their first batch of new songs since their 2024 album Can We Please Have Fun and evokes the garage vibes of early Kings material like “Molly’s Chambers.” But the band haven’t been idle in the interim. This past August, the Nashville-based group teamed up with Zach Bryan for a pair of songs: Bryan’s “Bowery,” on which King of Leon guested; and their own “We’re onto Something,” featuring the Oklahoma country songwriter.
Caleb Followill, lead singer and rhythm guitarist for Kings of Leon, was taken aback by how quickly Bryan works. On a new episode of Rolling Stone’s Nashville Now podcast, Followill shares how the band first met Bryan, reveals how Bryan’s fans responded to the group when they shared the stage with him in New Jersey, and offers a glimpse behind the scenes of how they collaborated on “Bowery.”
“Once we played some shows and we got to really kind of hang with him, I got to see his personality a little bit,” Followill says. “He had sent me ‘Bowery,’ and it was just a verse, so on the flight home I wrote the chorus and the verse and sent it to him. He was like — he works very quickly — ‘Alright, next weekend, New York, I want you guys there, we’re recording it!’ I was like, ‘What? Next week?! Let me see if I can do that…’”
Followill recognized an opportunity when he saw one though and brought along a new song that Kings of Leon had written titled “We’re onto Something.” “If we’re going to record with him, let’s get him on one of our songs,” Followill tells Nashville Now.
As soon as they finished, Bryan was already itching to release “Bowery.” “He’s like, ‘We’re putting it out in one week!’ I was like, ‘That’s it? We’re not going to, like, listen to it, see what we think?’” Followill laughs. “But we loved that approach. That’s his thing. If he has an idea, he puts it on video and sends it out into the world before he’s tweaked it.”
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Followill says Bryan’s fast-paced write-record-release way of working is similar to that of some rap artists. “It reminds me of old school hip-hop, that hands-on approach, warts and all. People eat that up,” he says. “If the only thing they hear from you is the polished finished product, you’re not letting them see the process and the thing that is really going to make them a fan.”
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Kings of Leon — rounded out by Followill’s brothers Jared Followill on bass and Nathan Followill on drums, and cousin Matthew Followill on lead guitar — released EP #2 via their own Love Tap Records. The group will perform two New Year’s Eve concerts at the Venetian in Las Vegas this Dec. 30 and 31.
Download and subscribe to Rolling Stone’s weekly country-music podcast, Nashville Now, hosted by senior music editor Joseph Hudak, on Apple Podcasts or Spotify (or wherever you get your podcasts). New episodes drop every Wednesday and feature interviews with artists and personalities like Lainey Wilson, Hardy, Charley Crockett, Gavin Adcock, Amanda Shires, Jamey Johnson, Shooter Jennings, Margo Price, Gretchen Wilson, Lukas Nelson, Ashley Monroe, Old Crow Medicine Show’s Ketch Secor, Joshua Hedley, Ink, Halestorm, Dusty Slay, and Clever.
