Band of the Year: Kings of Leon disclose the failure of 2009.

So after a year of living it large with world fame and millions of fans, Kings Of Leon highlighted some regrets in an interview with SPIN.

Only by the Night is certified platinum in the U.S. Kings of Leon spend the summer playing The Today Show and headlining U.K. and American festivals (like Austin City Limits) alongside their heroes Radiohead and Pearl Jam.

NATHAN: If a band got to do just one of those things, it would pretty much be the highlight of their year. The Today Show was awesome 'cause they said I was the first person ever to drink a beer on the air at 6:15 a.m. And Lollapalooza and ACL were phenomenal because that was kind of our American homecoming. The night before ACL was the drunkest I got all year—thanks to one Edward Vedder.
CALEB: Ed actually called it immediately. He was one of the first people to hear Only by the Night, and he said, "You're about to ride a big wave." I don't even think he liked the record. But he knew immediately that we were about to go through something big.
JARED FOLLOWILL: When our manager told us we had sold a million records, I was blown away. But it's also kind of bittersweet. Once you go platinum, you're automatically considered not cool.
CALEB: We definitely got bigger than we wanted to be. You feel like you've done something wrong. That woman in mom jeans who'd never let me date her daughter? She likes my music. That's fuckin' not cool. You almost start doing damage control: When people ask you to do stuff, you're like, "No, because I can already tell this record is going to get to a level where people will fuckin' hate us."
NATHAN: When we started this band, our goal was to sell 10,000 records and put on one concert a year for 10,000 people. We did that 179 times on this tour.
CALEB: We used to play small clubs, go out to dive bars, drink with fans—it was a beautiful thing. Now you're backstage at a big arena with Walmart lighting, and they're not letting anyone in. Our real fans, the ones who've been there for the last five years, are in the front row pissed off. They'll turn their backs on us during "Sex on Fire" and "Use Somebody," put their middle fingers up. I get it. We're definitely sellouts. But when you have success like we've had, you kind of have to feed the masses. As corny as it sounds.
NATHAN: For every fan we lost by quote "selling out," we've probably gained five.
JARED: The first year I was in the band, I made $500. Now you start to feel like an asshole sometimes. You're on the plane, like, "Dude, it's been 30 minutes—where's my sushi?"

Read the full interview here.