There’s something about Kings of Leon’s 2008 hit “Sex on Fire” that makes it nearly irresistible to other artists. Everyone from pop superstars like Beyoncé to country bands like Sugarland and Zac Brown Band have covered the Nashville group’s radio hit, which netted them their first Grammy in 2009.
Kings singer Caleb Followill can’t fully explain its appeal but, on occasion, he has a visceral reaction to slower, ballad versions of “Sex on Fire.”
“Sometimes I hear it, and when it’s slowed down like a sultry version, I’m like, ‘Oh those lyrics…’ It’s supposed to be dirty and raunchy and quick, and then the song is done,” Followill tells Rolling Stone’s Nashville Now podcast.
Followill says he initially didn’t even want to include “Sex on Fire” on the group’s 2008 LP Only by the Night, but is happy he relented:. “I tried to not have it on the album. It was at the last second that we put it on. I was saying, ‘No, no, no. People are going to think it’s a pop song.’ Thank goodness I got outvoted on that.”
Now, nearly 17 years later, “Sex on Fire,” along with hits like “Use Somebody” and “The Bucket,” have become Kings of Leon signatures. According to Followill, all he needs to do is play the first few guitar notes of “Sex on Fire” and fists jut into the air. “We can play it at a funeral and the corpse would sit up,” he says.
But duplicating the song’s success isn’t as simple as he first thought. “After it came out, I was like, ‘That was easy. I can write 50 of those,’” Followill says, adding that a journalist challenged him to try it. “And here we are, still haven’t done it.”
Kings of Leon released the surprise new project EP #2 last week, a collection of four songs that call to mind the earlier, raw material, like “California Waiting,” of the band’s very first EP, 2003’s Holy Roller Novocaine. This summer, King of Leon were introduced to a whole new audience when they paired up with country star Zach Bryan to release two songs and play a number of stadium shows. “It reminds me of old school hip-hop, that hands-on approach, warts and all,” Followill described Bryan’s way of making music on Nashville Now. “People eat that up.”
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.
