Caleb Followill refused Kings of Leon 'best of' album as he finds the concept 'depressing'

Caleb Followill says he refused to compile a Kings of Leon greatest hits album as he finds the concept ‘depressing.’

In the sixth and final episode of the current series of Tim’s Listening Party this Sunday (19th May), Kings of Leon vocalist Caleb Followill and his younger brother Jared spoke to Tim Burgess about their acclaimed new album ‘Can We Please Have Fun.’

When Tim asked what inspired them to make the new record, Caleb explained that it was inadvertently born out of discussions about a ‘best of’ album.

“So, we had a tour in Australia and New Zealand and it was like one of those tours that just felt special because we hadn't been (touring) in a long time, and the crowds were amazing,” Caleb said.

“As we were kind of wrapping up the tour we had a meeting with our manager and stuff, and it's like, ‘hey, the 20 year anniversary of your first album is coming up. We are thinking that we could do a tour, maybe release a couple of new songs, a Greatest Hits.’”

“It was so depressing to me. I was like, ‘No, we can't do that. Like, it's not time.’ And it kind of lit a fire in us. It was like, ‘if people think that past 20 years is good way to they see what we got next!’”

Caleb continued: “So we went home, kind of buried ourselves away. Got a bunch of songs together and kind of secretly recorded stuff. Secretly-ish. We did hire (producer) Kid Harpoon. Nothing secret about that! But we didn't have a record label, so we were free agents at the time. We didn't have managers coming in listening. We kept it all in house.

“When we were finished, we played it for people and you know the reaction - you could tell that it was different from what we had been doing, because it was a lot more personal and a lot more hands on and our fingerprints are just all over it.”

Featuring the singles ‘Mustang’ and ‘Nowhere to Run’, Kings of Leon’s tenth studio album ‘Can We Please Have Fun’ is out now.

Listen to Kings of Leon on Tim’s Listening Party:

You can listen to Kings of Leon’s full chat with Tim Burgess on Tim’s Listening Party on Absolute Radio this Sunday night (19th May) from 10pm.

Alongside going through ‘Can We Please Have Fun’ track-by-track, Caleb and Jared also discuss what it was like working with Harry Styles and Miley Cyrus producer Kid Harpoon, and their ambitions to record a country album.

Listen to Tim's Listening Party

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