Kings of Leon is just a few months away from the release of ninth studio album and it’s all about fun.

Appropriately named,Can We Please Have Fun, the band shared the project is centered around returning to their roots, celebrating the beginning of their third decade as a band and remaining true to who they are.

“We had kind of come to a point when it was like, ‘All right, should we go out [to] celebrate the 20 years and do that tour?’ And we weren't ready for that. We still have more to give,” Caleb shared during a recent Audacy Check In at the Hard Rock Hotel in New York City. “So we used that to motivate us to push ourselves harder. In the process, we got back to our creative ways and being a little more fearless, not thinking about the outcome of the music and just making stuff for us that made us smile. That's how we made music in the beginning and that's how we made this album.”

Added Nathan, “There's a big difference [between] making music that you think people want you to make and making music that you feel and you want to make. After success, a couple of big songs or whatever, it is easy to [follow] that formula that people liked and was big for us. [Can We Please Have Fun] was the total opposite of that, at least for me it was.”

The guys credit the album producer, Kid Harpoon, for fostering a place of creativity for them and creating a space with no rules when it came to creativity.

“We worked with Kid Harpoon on this one,” said Jared. “He's such a positive, almost like childlike, up for anything, try this, try that [kinda guy with] no rules or boundaries. He just got something out of us or at least allowed us to do things. He was super fun and sweet and just got the vibes up. It was such a good vibe going in every single day and it just made us feel young again.”

Fans got taste of the “good vibes” to come with the release of “Mustang,” the lead single from the project and the guys’ first newly recorded material since the release of When You See Yourself in 2021. Proving they found inspiration in the most authentic ways for this project, Caleb says his kids are to credit for the standout line, “Are you a kitty or a mustang?”

“I owe it to my kids, really,” he said. “My son was wearing a Mustang t-shirt and my daughter had YouTube videos of cats on. When we went in the studio, I sang that part, not thinking it was going to be the lyric and Kid [liked it] so I was like ‘Le’s go with that.’”

He continued, “'Mustang's one of those [songs] that has like some quirky lyrics and stuff, but I feel like there's a little bit of that in everything, even songs that are deeper and more, slow kind of vibes. There's a lot of little Easter egg lyrics that will make you go like, ‘Hmm, that's interesting.’”

Fans can hear it all by checking out Kings of Leon’s new album, Can We Please Have Fun, available May 10. In the meantime, get all the behind-the-scenes info and more from their Audacy Check In with Brad Steiner above.

Words by Monica Rivera Interview by Brad Steiner