When Kings of Leon’s Caleb Followill walked off stage in Dallas, Texas on Friday, muttering darkly of “heat exhaustion and dehydration”, he was certainly not the first rock star to burn out mid-tour. The band have subsequently cancelled all their remaining dates in the US, issuing a statement saying they need to take a break for two months.
Ever since Led Zeppelin and the Rolling Stones undertook the first truly mammoth, modern-era jaunts around North America in the early 1970s, “the road” has always been peppered with pitfalls for the top-flight rocker.
The fundamental lifestyle is gruelling: endless travel, patchy sleep, irregular food, perpetual disorientation – all for an hour or two’s fun onstage every evening, and - often - the party afterwards.
In the intervening years, a major artist’s global itinerary has extended way beyond just the US and Europe, to include regular stops in the Far East, Australasia, numerous former Eastern Bloc countries, and South America. In the future India and China beckon. Along the way, a band these days has practically no down time: in today’s corporate culture, there are umpteen meet-and-greets and local radio interviews in the run-up to showtime in every town or city.
In short, the mega-touring life is now every bit as monotonous and depressing as commuting, minus the creature comforts of home every evening. Your schedule for the next eighteen months can start to resemble a lengthy sentence. The band members are imprisoned together for months on end, incubating all their mutual dislikes and petty jealousies. The whole dynamic can be particularly explosive when you throw family issues into the mix – remember Oasis?
So, when Caleb Followill talked of “heat exhaustion and dehydration”, it was a highly plausible excuse in Texas at the height of summer, where temperature and humidity far exceeds anything we’re used to in Blighty. Those, however, were doubtless his issues near the surface. There was almost certainly some kind of hangover involved – Kings of Leon have confessed to partying ways in the past.
Deeper down, there’s the relentless sparring of a mega-successful band formed by three brothers and a cousin, who have by their own admission never seen eye to eye. Following 2008’s multi-platinum-selling crossover album, “Only By the Night”, they reputedly disagreed vehemently about whether to return to their bluesy roots, or continue in a more mainstream direction. The result, last October’s “Come Around Sundown”, rather fell between the two stools, and didn’t match its predecessor’s sales.
After Friday’s blow-out, Caleb’s bass-playing brother Jared Tweeted rather ominously of the band’s “internal sicknesses.” He added: “I can’t lie, there are problems in our band bigger than not drinking enough Gatorade”.
Although having cancelled such a major US tour will have sent their insurance premiums through the roof – and that’s one of the biggest pressures surrounding a world-touring combo’s business operation in 2011 – taking a breather forthwith was doubtless the right decision. Twenty-four hours on from the cancellation, they have stated emphatically that they’re not splitting up. A few decent nights’ kip and several hefty rows further down the line, they’ll surely all kiss, make up, and be back chasing the highway dream once again.
Ever since Led Zeppelin and the Rolling Stones undertook the first truly mammoth, modern-era jaunts around North America in the early 1970s, “the road” has always been peppered with pitfalls for the top-flight rocker.
The fundamental lifestyle is gruelling: endless travel, patchy sleep, irregular food, perpetual disorientation – all for an hour or two’s fun onstage every evening, and - often - the party afterwards.
In the intervening years, a major artist’s global itinerary has extended way beyond just the US and Europe, to include regular stops in the Far East, Australasia, numerous former Eastern Bloc countries, and South America. In the future India and China beckon. Along the way, a band these days has practically no down time: in today’s corporate culture, there are umpteen meet-and-greets and local radio interviews in the run-up to showtime in every town or city.
In short, the mega-touring life is now every bit as monotonous and depressing as commuting, minus the creature comforts of home every evening. Your schedule for the next eighteen months can start to resemble a lengthy sentence. The band members are imprisoned together for months on end, incubating all their mutual dislikes and petty jealousies. The whole dynamic can be particularly explosive when you throw family issues into the mix – remember Oasis?
So, when Caleb Followill talked of “heat exhaustion and dehydration”, it was a highly plausible excuse in Texas at the height of summer, where temperature and humidity far exceeds anything we’re used to in Blighty. Those, however, were doubtless his issues near the surface. There was almost certainly some kind of hangover involved – Kings of Leon have confessed to partying ways in the past.
Deeper down, there’s the relentless sparring of a mega-successful band formed by three brothers and a cousin, who have by their own admission never seen eye to eye. Following 2008’s multi-platinum-selling crossover album, “Only By the Night”, they reputedly disagreed vehemently about whether to return to their bluesy roots, or continue in a more mainstream direction. The result, last October’s “Come Around Sundown”, rather fell between the two stools, and didn’t match its predecessor’s sales.
Although having cancelled such a major US tour will have sent their insurance premiums through the roof – and that’s one of the biggest pressures surrounding a world-touring combo’s business operation in 2011 – taking a breather forthwith was doubtless the right decision. Twenty-four hours on from the cancellation, they have stated emphatically that they’re not splitting up. A few decent nights’ kip and several hefty rows further down the line, they’ll surely all kiss, make up, and be back chasing the highway dream once again.
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