"Sex on Fire" by Kings of Leon, Friday, August 26, 2022

There was something about the music scene in the early '00s when a rock band had to first make it the UK before making it in the US. Some music fans were confused when The Killers gained popularity in America after first breaking in the UK. But after releasing three successful records in the UK, no one would mistake Kings of Leon as a British group. The band's lead singer, Caleb Followill and his southern drawl placed the band solidly in a lineage of southern rock. It's not the particular type of music normally associated with British Rock, but that didn't stop "Sex on Fire" from becoming the second most downloaded single ever in the UK.
 

I KNOW THEY'RE WATCHIN'. The song that brought Kings of Leon to the top of the American Rock charts was "Sex on Fire" from the band's fourth record, Only By the Night. As the song blew up, a lot of interest formed around the band. "Sex on Fire" was at home in naughties rock, a time when rock bands introduced a shocking song about sex, even if the band didn't write about the topic very often. From the title "Sex on Fire," the band alludes to an over-the-top sexual encounter. Hidden within the lyrics, though, are some rather depraved ideas: exhibitionism/voyeurism and receiving oral sex on while driving. The album didn't have a Parental Advisory sticker, though, as the lyrics didn't contain any profanity. As the band's fame ascended, the Kings of Leon origin story was revealed in all of the major rock publications. That origin story sounded something akin to characters out of a Flannery O'Connor story, including a strict tent-revival preacher who eventually lost his faith, abandoning his family. Three brothers raised by the preacher's ex-wife. Joining with their cousin, the family band is encouraged by a collaborator to be named like a gospel group as the "Kings of Zion," but rather named themselves after the band's patriarch, the band's grandfather, Leon.

CONSUMED WITH WHAT'S JUST TRANSPIRED. "Sex on Fire" is the kind of rock 'n' roll decadence the Followills would have been denied growing up in a conservative Christian context. The religious fervor of the Followills' preacher father exhorting those who adhere to keep pure until marriage contrasts with lyrics implying irrumation, when Caleb sings “head while I’m driving.” Years after removing themselves from a religious context that wouldn't even allow members of the opposite sex to swim together, Caleb wrote a song about his girlfriend (later wife) model Lily Aldridge. The song started out a bit more innocent, but the misheard lyrics during recording "Set us on fire" sounded like "your sex is on fire," and so the lyrics too took on a more sexual nature, referring to being driven wild by a member of the opposite sex. The song was everywhere in 2008, propelling Kings of Leon to rock superstardom. The song is easily parodied. I remember being in the car and my friend Nate telling my friend Caleb, "Caleb, your sex is on fire!" The song always made me think about an STD, but it was also a song I would sing when I was stressed out, when my "stress is on fire!" Stress on fire actually makes more sense. It's when stress gets so out of control, it catches fire. I mean, if something catches on fire, it's pretty stressful. But what happens if the actual stress catches on fire?

Read “Sex on Fire” by Kings of Leon on Genius.