“When you first start out, it’s you versus the world,” says Kings Of Leon’s frontman, Caleb Followill, speaking from his home in Nashville, Tennessee.
He remembers the comparisons – “the Southern Strokes, I think someone called us Y’all 2, like U2, which was funny” – and how each one added to the fire in their bellies to make their own name.
Now, with the release of their ninth album, Can We Please Have Fun (not a question), 25 years after the band was formed by Caleb and his brothers, Nathan and Jared, and cousin Matthew, Kings Of Leon have definitely done that.
“I feel like at this point, the thing we’re trying to do is something that inspires the next generation,” says Followill. “It’s kind of hard because people don’t really look to the grown-ups for answers. So we listen to the kids, we get inspired by what they’re doing.”
Image: Caleb (centre background) on stage with brother Jared in the early days of Kings Of Leon. Pic: AP/ John Russell
Earlier this week, according to the Official Charts, things were looking good for Can We Please Have Fun to become the band’s seventh UK number one album, with only one teeny thing standing in their way – Taylor Swift, another artist who cut her teeth in Nashville. After topping the charts, The Tortured Poets Society is currently sitting at number two; but this is Taylor Swift, and she’s been known to climb back before.
Followill laughs. “At this point, I think everyone’s just trying to go for number two. Which, you know, that’s great too. But I love Taylor. I’m so happy for her and her success.”
Topping the charts once again would be a “kind of validation”, he says. “That’s also kind of a notch on the belt that you can show your family one day – hey, we had a number one.” Or several number ones, even. “But we don’t make records so they’ll be number one. We’ve been beat out by a lot of music that didn’t necessarily last as long as our music has.”
Image: On stage at the British Summertime Festival in Hyde Park, London, in 2017 – the band will return once again to play later this year. Pic: Joel Ryan/Invision/AP
‘It hasn’t been the most fun the last handful of years’
It’s been 21 years since their debut, Youth And Young Manhood, and hits including Molly’s Chambers and California Waiting, which saw them embraced by the UK way before their homeland took notice.
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The band have previously talked about the tolls and pressures of fame, of sibling fights, and going through the motions. Now, Followill says there is “renewed passion and this kind of fire in us that we haven’t had necessarily, in the last handful of years”.
Can We Please Have Fun, both in title and content, definitely feels like a Kings Of Leon with a new lease of life. There were other options for its name – Actual Daydream, Moving Spectacle, Suicide Machine among them, says Followill, flicking through a notebook to remind himself – but they would all have painted a different picture.
“It hasn’t been the most fun the last handful of years”, he says. “Not being in this band necessarily, just life has been kind of heavy. There’s been a lot of seriousness. I feel like maybe it’s always been that way. It just feels much more nowadays because it’s in our face with our phones and our computers.”
Their last album, 2021’s When You See Yourself, saw the band moving into the world of NFTs, a form of cryptocurrency used to hold assets such as art and music, which exploded that year. They were billed as the first music artists ever to release an album in this way; for a band rooted in good old-fashioned rock ‘n’ roll, it seemed a surprise move.
Image: Pic: PR
‘It doesn’t take AI to sound like us’
Followill admits they “never truly” understood it. “Apparently it was something that was happening and maybe is still happening, I don’t know. I know it got us into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, which was cool. We were the first band to ever sell our music as an NFT, might be the only one, I don’t know.
“But we weren’t trying to push some new type of technology on people… it was just something that looked like that was kind of where things were headed. So, you know, why not be on the forefront of it?”
Since then, AI has become a huge issue affecting the music industry, with stars including Billie Eilish and Nicki Minaj recently calling for more protection. Followill describes himself as “kind of an old man” when it comes to his knowledge. “I am scared of it though, I think, maybe, a little bit,” he says. “I’ve seen some stuff that makes makes me a little nervous.”
He grins. “As far as music, it doesn’t take AI to sound like us, my god. We’re still learning how to play, so our skill level is still very much achievable by just human beings. It’s not going to take aliens or artificial intelligence.”
After When You See Yourself, they parted ways with their long-term record label. Rather than being a negative experience, “we felt like we were free for the first time since the very beginning”, says Followill.
On Can We Please Have Fun, they worked with producer mastermind Kid Harpoon, renowned for his collaborations with artists including Miley Cyrus, Harry Styles, Calvin Harris and Florence + The Machine. Despite being industry veterans, Kings Of Leon were keen to impress.
“We had to record a little bit and then he would duck away for a couple of weeks to do some stuff he already had scheduled. But that was a pretty eye-opening experience because he would go away and then it was like, all right, let’s get a bunch of stuff that’s going to make him impressed when he gets back.”
Image: Winning Grammys in 2010. Pic: AP
Strip clubs to stadiums
Last week, they performed at a ranch in Nashville to mark the album’s release – “a real barn, no air conditioning, there was a peacock in the rafters screaming the whole time, a dog in the room”, is how Followill describes it.
It’s not the strangest setting they’ve ever found themselves in. That title would probably go to their first ever UK gig, in High Wycombe, at a pub that also doubled up as a lap-dancing venue.
“I remember we were backstage for soundcheck and we kept commenting on the potent smell of lotion,” Followill recalls. “It smelled like floral lotion everywhere.” After drawing small crowds in the US, that first UK show “was insanity, with probably only 100 people, but we had been playing in America to five people. So it was this crazy thing”.
The band went on to fill arenas and stadiums, headlining Glastonbury in 2008. They play London’s Hyde Park – “which always feels like a homecoming” – once again this summer. Last year, they played at Wrexham’s Racecourse Ground; a stage that at one time might also have been added to their unlikely venues list, but following its Hollywood takeover is now a huge celebrity draw.
Image: Kings Of Leon headlined Glastonbury in 2008. Pic: Reuters/Luke MacGregor
It felt like the whole town was there to see them, Followill says. “We were playing the show… but I feel like it was almost they were supporting just whatever was going to be happening at the club that night.
“The kind of fairytale story of Wrexhamand what’s happened, it’s worldwide. Americans don’t necessarily know what it means with the different leagues and how you can get relegated and all that stuff. But we do know what an underdog story is and how special it is when you see someone work their way up.”
They can add darts to the list of ambitions Kings Of Leon still have to tick off. Followill says there are“a lot of big lofty things I probably won’t say” because at one point they felt “ridiculous”; now, so many years in and still going, maybe less so.
The singer says he doesn’t look back on what the band has achieved “as much as I could or should, at times”. He sees reflection as something that comes when there is no longer “a lot left in the tank… and I feel like I still have a lot”.
But the reminders are all around. “My daughter came downstairs in a Kings Of Leon T-shirt… and it’s an old T-shirt too. It’s like, wow.” These moments, he says, are “like a splash of water in the face… it definitely has surpassed anything we ever dreamed of”.
And seeing crowds singing his songs back at him never gets old.
“It’s more than just singing. Sometimes you look at people and they’re not just singing the song… it means so much to them, it’s like they are screaming it back at you. Whenever that happens, that is always just confirmation that you’re doing what you’re meant to be doing.”
Kings Of Leon’s Can We Please Have Fun is out now. The band play BST Hyde Park on 30 June
Vladimir Putin made demands to take control of key regions of Ukraine during his talks with Donald Trump, it has been widely reported, as a condition for ending the war.
During their summit in Alaska, the Russian leader is said to have told the US president he wants the eastern Donetsk and Luhansk regions – and would give up other Ukrainian territories held by his troops in exchange.
The plans were reported by several news outlets, citing sources close to the matter, as Mr Trump scheduled a further meeting with Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy in Washington DC for Monday. He has said this could potentially pave the way for a three-way meeting with Mr Putin.
Mr Trump reportedly backs the plans, according to some outlets – but Mr Zelenskyy has previously ruled out formally handing any territory to Moscow. Russia already controls a fifth of Ukraine, including about three-quarters of Donetsk province, which it first entered in 2014.
Details of the plans emerged after little was revealed during the high-profile summit between the US and Russian leaders on Friday.
Despite threats by the US president beforehand, of sanctions for Russia should there be no agreement on a ceasefire, a short news briefing after the talks ended with no mention of a suspension of fighting, no announced agreement on how to end the war, and little clarity about the next steps.
On Saturday, Mr Trump appeared to change his stance on what he hopes to achieve in Ukraine, indicating he wants a permanent peace settlement rather than a ceasefire.
“It was determined by all that the best way to end the horrific war between Russia and Ukraine is to go directly to a Peace Agreement, which would end the war, and not a mere Ceasefire Agreement, which often times do not hold up,” he said in a post on his social network site, Truth Social.
Image: Pic: Sergei Bobylev/ Sputnik/ Kremlin pool via AP
Trump: ‘Russia is a big power – they’re not’
In an interview with Fox News following the summit, Mr Trump signalled he and Putin had discussed land transfers and security guarantees for Ukraine, and had “largely agreed”. He said Ukraine has to made a deal, as “Russia is a very big power, and they’re not”.
Monday’s meeting at the White House will be the Ukrainian president’s second this year. His last descended into a fiery spat with Mr Trump and his vice president JD Vance, which saw him leave early.
After the fresh meeting was announced, Mr Zelenskyy in a post on X that he was grateful for the invitation.
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5:55
Trump and Putin’s body language analysed
“It is important that everyone agrees there needs to be a conversation at the level of leaders to clarify all the details and determine which steps are necessary and will work,” he said.
However, he said Russia had rebuffed “numerous calls for a ceasefire and has not yet determined when it will stop the killing”, which “complicates the situation”.
Mr Zelenskyy continued: “If they lack the will to carry out a simple order to stop the strikes, it may take a lot of effort to get Russia to have the will to implement far greater – peaceful coexistence with its neighbours for decades.
“But together we are working for peace and security. Stopping the killing is a key element of stopping the war.”
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23:24
Trump and Putin in Alaska – The Debrief
Putin releases statement on summit
In a statement on the summit, Mr Putin described the talks as “timely and quite useful” – but said the “removal” of what he calls the “root causes” of the crisis “must underlie the settlement”.
He continued: “We definitely respect the US administration’s position which wants the hostilities to stop as soon as possible. So do we, and we would like to move forward with settling all issues by peaceful means.
“The conversation was very frank and substantive, which, in my view, moves us closer towards making necessary decisions.”
Image: Keir Starmer welcomed Volodymyr Zelenskyy to Downing Street earlier this week. Pic: AP/ Kirsty Wigglesworth
European leaders who make up the “coalition of the willing” are set to hold a conference call today ahead of the crunch talks between Mr Trump and Mr Zelenskyy.
Prime Minister Keir Starmer, French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Friedrich Merz will host the video conference.
In a statement on Saturday,Sir Keir said Mr Trump’s efforts had “brought us closer than ever before to ending Russia’s illegal war in Ukraine” and that his leadership “in pursuit of an end to the killing should be commended”.
He said he supported the next phase of talks, but added: “In the meantime, until (Putin) stops his barbaric assault, we will keep tightening the screws on his war machine with even more sanctions.”
Meanwhile, Ukraine’s military has reported an advance of up to 2km on the Sumy front in the country’s northeast.
“Zones of continuous enemy fire damage are being maintained,” the Ukrainian General Staff said on Telegram. “Ukrainian troops are repelling Russian forces”.
In the early hours of Sunday, a regional governor in Russia said a railway employee had been injured and a power line damaged by a Ukrainian drone attack.
The incident happened in the Voronezh region, Alexander Gusev said on Telegram.
No deal has been reached to end the war in Ukraine – but Donald Trump has said there are “many points” he and Vladimir Putin agreed on during their highly anticipated summit.
Following the meeting in Alaska, which lasted more than two-and-a-half hours, the two leaders gave a short media conference giving little detail about what had been discussed, and without taking questions.
Mr Trump described the meeting as “very productive” and said there were “many points that we agreed on… I would say a couple of big ones”.
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2:20
Key moments from Trump-Putin news conference
But there are a few left, he added. “Some are not that significant. One is probably the most significant, but we have a very good chance of getting there…
“We haven’t quite got there, we’ve made some headway. There’s no deal until there’s a deal.”
He has since suggested that negotiations should proceed directly to a peace deal, rather than purely a ceasefire agreement.
Mr Putin described the negotiations as “thorough and constructive” and said Russiawas “seriously interested in putting an end” to the war in Ukraine. He also warned Europe not to “torpedo nascent progress”.
Following the summit, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said he plans to travel to Washington DC on Monday following a “long and substantive” conversation” with Mr Trump.
In a joint statement, European leaders including Sir Keir Starmer said they “welcomed President Trump’s efforts to stop the killing in Ukraine” and said the so-called ‘coalition of the willing’ is “ready to play an active role”.
Image: Donald Trump greets Vladimir Putin at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson, Alaska. Pic: AP/ Julia Demaree Nikhinson
After much build-up to the summit – with the US president threatening “severe” consequences for Russia should it not go well – it was ultimately not clear whether the talks had produced meaningful steps towards a ceasefire in what has been the deadliest conflict in Europe in 80 years.
Mr Trump said he intended to speak with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and other European leaders, who were excluded from the discussions, to brief them.
Despite not reaching any major breakthrough, the US leader ended his remarks with a thank you, and said he would probably see Mr Putin again “very soon”.
When the Russian president suggested that “next time” would be Moscow, he responded by saying he might face criticism, but “I could see it possibly happening”.
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2:10
Trump applauds Putin and shares ride in ‘The Beast’
The red carpet treatment
The news conference came after a grand arrival at the Elmendorf-Richardson military base in Anchorage, where the US president stepped down from Air Force One and later greeted his Russian counterpart with a handshake and smiles on a red carpet.
Mr Putin even travelled alongside Mr Trump in the presidential limousine, nicknamed “The Beast”.
It was the kind of reception typically reserved for close US allies, belying the bloodshed and the suffering in the war.
Before the talks, the two presidents ignored frantically-shouted questions from journalists – and Mr Putin appeared to frown when asked by one reporter if he would stop “killing civilians” in Ukraine, putting his hand to his ear as though to indicate he could not hear.
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3:22
‘Fury, anger and disgust’ in Ukraine
Our US correspondent Martha Kelner, on the ground in Alaska, said he was shouting “let’s go” – apparently in reference to getting the reporters out of the room.
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3:02
What we learned from Trump-Putin news conference
A ’10/10′ meeting
During his first day back in the White House in January, Mr Trump had pledged confidently to bring about an end to the war in Ukraine.
But seven months later, after infamously berating Mr Zelenskyy during a meeting at the Oval Office in February, and then stanching the flow of some US military assistance to Kyiv, he still does not appear to have brought a pause to the conflict.
In an interview with Fox News before leaving Alaska, Mr Trump described the meeting with Mr Putin as “warm” and gave it a “10/10”, but declined to give details about what they discussed.
He also insisted that the onus going forward could be on Mr Zelenskyy “to get it done”, but said there would also be some involvement from European nations.
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7:06
Trump’s body language was ‘disappointed’
What happens next?
Mr Trump has spoken with Mr Zelenskyy, Sir Keir Starmer and European leaders about the talks.
Following the call, Mr Zelenskyy reiterated the importance of involving Europe: “It is important that Europeans are involved at every stage to ensure reliable security guarantees together with America,” he said.
“We also discussed positive signals from the American side regarding participation in guaranteeing Ukraine’s security.”
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In a joint statement, European leaders including Sir Keir said: “We are clear that Ukraine must have ironclad security guarantees to effectively defend its sovereignty and territorial integrity.
“We welcome President Trump’s statement that the US is prepared to give security guarantees.
“The coalition of the willing is ready to play an active role. No limitations should be placed on Ukraine’s armed forces or on its cooperation with third countries. Russia cannot have a veto against Ukraine’s pathway to EU and NATO.”
Despite the US president’s efforts to bring about a ceasefire, Russian attacks on Ukraine have only intensified in the past few months.
The clear winner in Alaska is Vladimir Putin. A day in a global spotlight, equal billing with a true superpower leader, a red carpet welcome and most importantly for him no need to agree to a ceasefire.
He can fly home knowing Donald Trump has handed him a propaganda bonanza. Russian media which he controls completely will crow for weeks to come, milking the pictures like that of Putin laughing in the back of Cadillac One.
Crucially, Putin has wriggled off the hook yet again. He had until two weeks ago faced the threat of imminent severe sanctions that could have brought his economy to its knees by targeting his vital oil industry.
Donald Trump is one clear loser. He appears to have received nothing in return for bending over backwards to welcome the Russian leader. He said he would not be happy if Russia didn’t agree to a ceasefire but has failed to secure one.
The US president will not see it that way. He craves attention and big TV moments and yesterday delivered on that front.
Image: The two leaders spoke for around two-and-a-half hours. Pic: AP
Ukrainians who were not invited are losers too. It means the shelling and drone attacks on their homes goes on. Many more of them will die.
Social media here in Ukraine lit up in fury as the extraordinary pictures from Alaska came in.
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5:08
Trump-Putin meeting: Key takeaways
“He occupies territories… destroys entire cities, kills, rapes, robs, kidnaps, tortures, and as a result receives a red carpet welcome,” was one comment typical of many.
This morning a prominent Ukrainian artist Nikita Titov posted a striking image that sums up the worldview many believe is emerging from Alaska. The communist hammer and sickle but with Donald Trump’s trademark red tie replacing the hammer.
If Trump was sincere in wanting the killing to end he could resort to far more effective means than inconclusive summitry. Secondary sanctions on Russia’s oil industry and those who trade in it would be something for Putin to think about.
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Ukrainians are hugely frustrated Trump seems strangely reluctant to impose them. To them, this summit was an elaborate ruse to avoid doing so again.
In both substance and outcome Alaska sends a clear message to Ukraine and its European allies. America may carry on supporting their defence but now by selling not supplying weapons. It may or may not carry on providing absolutely essential military intelligence. But otherwise they are increasingly on their own.
That penny has been dropping for months in European capitals. Alaska has only rammed the point further home. The challenge for Europe is to ramp up its ability to support Ukraine quickly enough to fill the growing vacuum left by an American president whose sympathies increasingly lie elsewhere.