Kings of Leon’s Caleb Followill reacts to slowed-down covers of ‘Sex on Fire’

If you're thinking of covering Kings of Leon's "Sex on Fire," maybe don't slow it down. Frontman Caleb Followill tells the Rolling Stone Nashville Now podcast that he'd prefer other artists' renditions of the 2008 single stick to its original, faster tempo. "Sometimes I hear [...]

If you're thinking of covering Kings of Leon's "Sex on Fire," maybe don't slow it down.

Frontman Caleb Followill tells the Rolling Stone Nashville Now podcast that he'd prefer other artists' renditions of the 2008 single stick to its original, faster tempo.

"Sometimes I hear it, and when it's slowed down like a sultry version, I'm like, 'Oh those lyrics ...,"" Followill says. "It's supposed to be dirty and raunchy and quick, and then the song is done."

Of course, Followill wasn't even a big fan of KoL's own version of "Sex on Fire" - he wanted to keep it off the band's Only by the Night album because he was afraid that "people are going to think it's a pop song."

"Thank goodness I got outvoted on that," Followill says.

Indeed, "Sex on Fire" is now one of the biggest Kings of Leon hits and always gets a huge reaction live.

"We can play it at a funeral and the corpse would sit up," Followill says.

Kings of Leon just released a new EP, EP #2 , to follow their 2024 album, Can We Please Have Fun . In between, they put out two collaborations with country star Zach Bryan.

Copyright © 2025, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.