Kings of Leon.  (Photo by LEGO, courtesy of Big Hassle Media)

I have a theory.  It is that the Tennessee rockers Kings of Leon have deep love for their homeland.

I wonder - if they were aware of the destruction of mountaintop removal coal mining, so close to their own home stomping grounds, might they have a word to say about it?

Since their debut in 2003, KOL has been called “Lynyrd Strokes,” revivalists of boot-stomping boogie, “hillbilly garage rockers,” and badasses. 

Until landing a bombshell on U.S. soil with the song “Sex on Fire” at the 2009 Grammy’s, they’d primarily made their bones on the backs of the insatiable British appetite for raw-dog rock and roll.

“I don’t know how the hell that happened,” said frontman Caleb Followill to Sunday Herald Sun magazine, giddy from their newfound success.

This year at the Grammy’s, the Kings took Song of the Year for their song “Use Somebody.”  An affectless Ringo Starr introduced the band, and they politely stepped up onstage where frontman Caleb Followill prefaced their acceptance with a confession,

“We’re all a little drunk, but we’re happy drunk.”

Yet again, they took a modest little indulgence for a wild success.  Since their becoming international superstars, there have been a spots in which they still seem like rough-edged ‘necks rather than dandy rock divas.  The wardrobe has upgraded, but there’s still grit in the creases. 

Which brought me to my hypothesis: that they love the land they’re from.

Here is my reasoning.

1.  They are from Tennessee.  At least are, originally.  The other two are Okies.  Even though they traveled much and settled for a period in Jackson, well west of the mountains, the Appalachians are still pretty close to home for them.  They even bought a little house in Mt. Juliet, TN, in the area where Johnny Cash once resided.

2.  They are a family unit:  three brothers and a cousin.  Family ties bind… and stuff.  Almost every time he speaks in front of a camera, Caleb mentions the love and support of his family.  He gives shout-outs to his momma.  Good lad.  They clearly learned good manners, and how to love and respect their fellow man.

3.  They rock.  I mean, their story is a rock and roll fairytale.  The three brothers grew up the sons of a Pentecostal preacher, Leon Followill (namesake of the band).  They knew not from tasting the intoxicating ambrosia of rock and roll until they formed the band in Nashville. 

Jenny Eliscu of Rolling Stone wrote,

“While Leon preached at churches and tent revivals throughout the Deep South, the boys attended services and were occasionally enlisted to bang on some drums. They were either home-schooled or enrolled in small parochial schools at this time. Except for a five-year period when they settled in Jackson, Tennessee, the Followill’s childhoods were spent driving through the south in a purple 1988 Oldsmobile, decamping for a week or two wherever Leon was scheduled to preach.”

4.  They rumble.  In several interviews with Rolling Stone and other music press, Caleb recounts (or forgets) fights with his brothers.  From his brother Nathan breaking his arm, to a backstage bout with Matthew, Caleb has thrown down with his bros like a union miner in the Pittston Strike.

5.  They know their roots.  Music videos feature clips of family footage from the 1980s, everyone hanging out by a river.  Their home country didn’t appreciate them until after a long hero’s journey abroad.  But now that they are cajunga stars, they continue to sing uplifting songs about wanting to “be somebody,” and trashy ones about girls who “spit up and came back for more.”

Hell, they even refer to a sexy woman in a Camaro that’s “black as coal.”  Does it get any more superbly redneck than that?  They MUST love them some mountains! 

6.  They rock with Eddie Vedder, a “good friend.”  KOL opened for PJ on tour in 2005 and 2006, and now it seems the Seattle grungers have handed over the torch.  The hermetic Vedder even did the Kings the honor of tag-teaming vocals on the song “Slow Night, So Long,” during several shows.

Rockers and mountain-huggers alike can forever respect the EdVed, and the mighty Pearl Jam, for their definitive music as well as their scrupulous efforts at offsetting carbon footprints and ecological damage.  Might he have imparted such northwestern greenery to the Kings’ southeastern souls?

7.  “I talk to Jesus, Jesus, every day.”  Perhaps the grand stature of KOL’s rock stardom makes the golden cross pendant on Caleb’s chest all the more noticeable.  And many is the word of scripture that reveres the earth as sacred, and condemns its defilement.

What do I know?  Maybe KOL might not mind MTR, at all.  I’m not trying to force a stance on them, just making a conjecture.  They might well be coal-praising, red-dog-chucking good ol’ boys.  That’s well and good. 

I do wonder though, what they might say about the permanent flattening of mountaintops and the poisoning of streams like the ones they used to play in when they were kids.

 

Kings of Leon - (Photo by Dean Chalkley)