The last couple of weeks have been absolutely nuts. When we returned from Australia with the Kings of Leon, in late March, we had to put our head down and write the story. The new issue of Rolling Stone -- with the Kings on the cover -- is on stands now, so if you ain't a subscriber, go on and buy one. We had a lot of fun writing it, and we hope you enjoy.

There are so many people to thank in helping us get our Kings story together (the band, the crew, etc.), but first and foremost we want to give a shout-out to Andy Mendelsohn, the Kings' day-to-day manager. We also wanted to congratulate him on his marriage a couple weeks back to his longtime honey, Julie. At the ceremony, everybody praised Andy for being the nicest guy on the planet, and we can only second that emotion. And at the afterparty, none other than Eddie Vedder dropped by to pay his respects to the newlyweds. It was a beautiful thing. Mazel tov!

Since the Kings love and idolize the Band, their cover shot was loosely inspired by Elliott Landy's iconic photo of the Band in the Catskills. In fact, drummer Nathan Followill has a rare print of that exact photo above his fireplace in Nashville.

So now get this: Last Friday, for a separate story, we happened to be talking to Robbie Robertson and he told us he dug the story (!), and he was flattered when he'd read that the Kings admired the Band. And he also said he's been listening to the Kings a bunch recently. How fuckin' rad is that?

And on Saturday we were up in Woodstock and visited the Midnight Ramble, where Levon Helm assembles a sick band to jam on killer covers and old Band songs at his house up there. It's was one of the greatest shows we've ever witnessed: Larry Campbell (a Dylan alum) ripped it up on guitar, and Steely Dan's Donald Fagen (our hero) played piano and organ throughout. (They even covered "Black Friday"). After the show we got to go back to Levon's kitchen to interview him for a story we're working on about the Ramble and his new album, Electric Dirt, out in June.

When we got back to the kitchen it was 1 a.m. Levon rolled us a super-fat J, and we sat on a rocking chair between Larry and Levon, burning that fattie down to the nub. 

We can't wait for you to read the whole story!

Levon was the sweetest, funniest, most humble dude ever!

Greatest night of our life? Maybe so!