Q&A: Kings of Leon's Caleb Followill

When Kings of Leon singer Caleb Followill woke up after a night of partying in Birmingham, England, recently, he had more than 50 text messages on his phone. They were all congratulating him on the Kings' three Grammy nominations — the band's fourth disc, Only by the Night, is up for Best Rock Album, and its smash single, "Sex on Fire," scored two nods. "It was a huge shock," says Followill, checking in from Miami. "I didn't even think we had a chance." It's the culmination of a big year for the Tennessee rockers, which has found them headlining the Glastonbury Festival, filling 20,000-seat U.K. arenas and, in late January, playing New York's Madison Square Garden. "I'm feeling really good about life right now," says Followill. "I feel like a better person now than I've ever been."

Last year, when you announced your gig at the Garden, I said to myself, "Who the fuck do they think they are?"
Me too. Before I even knew it, the show was booked. We were scratching our heads, just like you. But ticket sales were going well, and I thought, "Holy shit! We're really going to do this." Hopefully it will be as legendary as we hope that it can be.

"Sex on Fire" is your most successful single yet, but it was almost cut from the album, right?
Yeah. I started to look at it like a Weezer song, something that shouldn't be taken too seriously. I don't want everything in our career to be so serious. I wasn't trying to save the world with that song.

I hear that you wrote a few versions of this song.
Yeah, there's a version about a couple who have nothing in common, and they hate each other, but the sex is on fire. I had a dirtier version that was completely perverse — it was pretty bad. In the end, I did put in that line about "head while I'm driving." That's never happened to me before — I'm a very good driver, and I'd be very scared to drive while getting head.

You guys performed in front of 100,000 people last year at the Glastonbury Festival. What was that like?
I was throwing up all day. When I walked onstage, everything went quiet. I knew people were cheering and I could see their hands flailing, but everything was quiet, like in that Kevin Costner movie [For Love of the Game] where he walks out to the pitcher's mound. I said to myself, "This is just another Kings of Leon concert and there just happens to be a big crowd all hopped up on goofballs." It was amazing. Halfway through the first song, it was my show.

How did you celebrate?
The one thing I can remember is going backstage and taking a drink from a Corona. I've never had a sip that tasted so delicious.

You toured with Bob Dylan in 2006. Did you get to say hello to him?
Yeah, we met with him a few times, and he was really cool, a soft-spoken guy. We were all shocked at how much of a fan he was. We thought that someone in his camp had asked us to open for him, but he let us know it was actually him. He asked me, "What's that last song you played in the set?" I said, "'Trani.'" He said, "That's a hell of a song." Later, when I was in bed, I thought, "Did he really say that?" [Laughs]

Do you guys like to jam on covers during rehearsals?
We did a Pretenders song for a VH1 special. And we play a pretty good version of Joy Division's "Transmission." When I heard that My Morning Jacket and Eddie Vedder did the Band song "It Makes No Difference," I literally wanted to die. My Morning Jacket always do stuff right before we get a chance to. I was like, "Damn it, they got us again!" Somebody suggested we do "Sweet Home Alabama" at the Garden — I told them to fuck off.