I've been a subscriber to Rolling Stone for a long time. I remember seeing the four star review for Youth and Young Manhood and thinking to myself, "Who are these kids and how can they be that good?" I was a bit sick of the popular music landscape at the time and was sick of popular media outlets trumpeting new bands from the UK and other bands like Fall Out Boy and Jet and the like. So, I slept on Youth and Young Manhood and continued on with my own music collection.
A year or two later came Aha Shake Heartbreak and another stellar review from Rolling Stone. At that time I thought, "These guys have to be decent because Rolling Stone is usually pretty right when it comes to reviews. I was at Best Buy and saw the album for $9.99 so I decided to take a chance on it without even hearing a note. I put it in my car cd player and was immediately taken aback with the distinct sound of Caleb Followill's voice and of the dirty, garage rock sound. I became an instant fan. I am a fan of many different genres of music and Kings of Leon struck me in the way that early-60's Rolling Stones struck me.
I had a close friend at work named Pete and he and I exchanged music and mix cd's often. We turned each other on to a bunch of different music that neither of us was into before. He turned me on to Herbie Hancock and Charles Mingus. I gave him a copy of Aha Shake Heartbreak. I talked to him at work the following day and he told me a story about how he left work, put the cd in his truck, and within ten minutes was jamming down the highway with the window down and thinking about how this was the best new music he had heard in years. He became an instant fan like I did. We each purchased Youth and Young Manhood and our fandom grew. We both agreed that KOL trumped every other band out there and was better than everything on the radio at that time (still true today).
I have now seen KOL in concert three times and each time gets better. Sadly, Pete never got a chance to see them live as he passed away from cancer in 2005 at the ripe old age of 27. Whenever I see the Kings in concert I think about Pete and how much of a blast he would have had seeing such a great band live. I am forever a KOL fan and will see them everytime they're in Wisconsin. I know Pete is somewhere telling people how great Because of the Times is and passing on mix cd's like he used to do for me.