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Kings of Leon is an American quartet founded in Nashville, Tennessee, 1999. The band consists of three brothers and their cousin Matthew - (Anthony) Caleb Followill (b. 1982) lead vocalist & rhythm guitarist, (Cameron) Matthew Followill (b. 1984) on lead guitar & backing vocals, (Michael) Jared Followill (b. 1986) on bass & backing vocals, and (Ivan) Nathan Followill (b. 1979) on drums, percussion & backing vocals.
The band's music was originally a mixture of southern rock, blues rock, and country rock mixed with a certain amount of psychedelic rock, but the music has changed along the way towards clearer pop / rock and an alt. rock style on albums from around 2008 and onwards. As Americans, KOL enjoy greater popularity in Europe than in the US, e.g. the debut album peaked at number #133 on the national albums chart, whereas it peaked at number #3 in the UK (selling more than four times as many albums here), and although the band's second album made a fine entry as number #55 in the US, but again the it landed as a number #3 in Britain. Both their 2008 and 2010 studio albums topped the charts in the UK, as they did in several other countries worldwide, and despite having by now experienced two album releases, which both peaked at number #2 in the US (in 2010 and 2013) - both of these albums topped the charts in Britain as they did in a number of other European countries as well as in Australia - so after six studio albums (as of 2015), the band has yet to achieve the same success in their home country.
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