The Kings of Leon new documentary - or “rockumentary” - entitled “Talihina Sky: The Story of Kings of Leon” describes exactly how the group went from poor Pentecostals to hard-partying rock stars.
The documentary has still to be completed, but follows the group’s ultra-strict upbringing under their evangelist father and worship leader mother to detailing their present fallout with church and faith.
Included in the documentary are home videos of the Followill brothers (and cousin) depicting their youth spent traveling across various Bible belts of the American South with their ministering parents. It then contrasts this with their present lifestyles of hard rocking complete with lots of whiskey, sex and parties.
One particular scene has a voice over from one of the band members saying, “As soon as I knew we got a record deal, that whole night I never slept because I knew I was going to hell and I wasn’t going to be a preacher.”
Their father, Ivan Leon Followill, is understated when commentating on his boys’ new lives, “I don’t want to say my kids are going to hell you know, nothing like that, but as far as what I envisioned, it’s a little different.”
So what exacted happened to the Followills? How did children who grew up with their lives so immersed in Christianity lose faith? Well, it seems the answer to that question lies with their father.
In 1997, their father resigned from the church and divorced his wife, leaving his sons shattered and disillusioned. This came after Followill senior endured a long battle with alcoholism.
“Our parents’ divorce shattered the whole mirage of this perfect little existence the outside world couldn’t touch and couldn’t pollute,” the oldest Followill brother, Nathan, told Relevant Magazine.
“We realised that our dad, the greatest man we ever knew, in our eyes, was only human. And so are we … this whole new world was open to us.”
Caleb Followill, the lead vocals and guitarist, similarly once informed The Independent, “I’d put my faith in my dad and I wanted to follow in his footsteps. I’d always look up to ministers, but at about fifteen I started to see that they were just normal men and it broke my heart. I closed myself off to pretty much everyone and dropped out of school.”
Nathan and Caleb left home and went to Nashville, where after six months they were signed with a record company. The older brothers then asked their youngest sibling Jared and cousin Matthew to join their band.
However, it seems that not all connection with their roots was broken, as the boys named the band after their father and grandfather. Also, the brothers are clearly not quite ready to completely disassociate themselves from their faith.
“We realise now looking back on it that the way we were raised definitely shaped us into the guys that we are. There are definitely things from that time of life that I want to keep, especially being a good person and being thankful for everything that you have,” Nathan told Relevant Magazine.
Nathan also told the magazine that they still believed in God, gave money to churches, prayed every night and even attended church occasionally.
Caleb echoed Nathan’s hope when he confessed to The Independant that “To be a man means that you are born into sin, so you might as well be honest about it.
“Look at David in the Old Testament. He was a man after God’s own heart, yet he plotted the death of one of his generals so that he could marry the guy’s wife Bathsheba,” he added.
“So if he’s the man after God’s own heart, well, maybe when you’re at your roughest moment, that’s when He’s watching over you and smiling.”