Stephen Mitchell considers himself Kings of Leon’s #1 fan. As such, he’s been filming the band for a decade, steadily putting together footage for the upcoming documentary Talihina Sky – about to make its debut at the Tribeca Film Festival. The director recently spoke to Spinner.com about the members’ sometimes violent relationship (three of them are brothers, after all).
“[Nathan and Caleb Followill] have notoriously gone at each other over the years,” he said. “They’ve had knockout – I mean broken shoulders, pulled hair, trying to stab each other. Those two are like twins almost. They’re so close but they’re too close, if that makes sense.”
The movie follows the Kings from their first show in a garage to playing to enormous crowds at giant festivals, following the release of their 2008 breakthrough Only by the Night. Since Mitchell has been to so many of the band’s shows, which one does he think was the best?
“The best show ever was 2008 at Oxygen, just outside of Dublin – Irish people just get [expletive] nuts,” he said. “They’re bonkers! They get so drunk. They sing every word, every background vocal part. They sing the guitar solo parts and they’re going [expletive] nuts!
“The dudes get so fired up with joy, they’re not even mad and they’re punching each other in the face. It’s awesome.”
