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NEWS : STORIES
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08.12.2009 4:14 PM EDT
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Kings Of Leon Think They'll Come In 'Last Place' At VMAs
But bassist Jared Followill does admit their 'Use Somebody' clip is 'probably the least stupid video we've done.'
by
James Montgomery, with reporting by Gil Kaufman
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Kings Of Leon's Jared Followill
(Photo:
MTV News
)
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If there's one thing the five bands competing for Best Rock Video at the Video Music Awards have in common, it's that none of them seem to think they have a prayer of actually winning the thing.
Last week, when we spoke to Fall Out Boy — whose "I Don't Care" video is up against Coldplay's "Viva la Vida," Green Day's "21 Guns," Paramore's "Decode" and the Kings of Leon's "Use Somebody" in the category — they had already written themselves off as the front-runners, saying the Kings would probably take home the Moonman.
We then took this information to the Kings themselves backstage at Lollapalooza in Chicago, who quickly laughed it off. Seems they don't think they have a shot, either.
"Coldplay? Green Day? So basically what you're telling us is that we'll come in last place," bassist Jared Followill laughed. "I swear to God, I think we might come in last place. Or maybe second to last."
Perhaps Best Rock Video will just end in a five-way tie then. The Kings were actually quite proud of their first-ever VMA nom, which only serves as (yet another) cherry atop a pretty sweet year for the band — including a million-selling album, the cover of Rolling Stone and a headlining slot at Lolla. And even though they won't admit it, they've got just as good a shot at the Moonman as the others.
"I think it's huge for us, because we're always so self-conscious about our videos. They're the hardest thing in the world to make, especially nowadays. They've been around forever, and everything's been done," Followill said. "So it's really, really hard to keep your videos cool. We feel like every video we've ever done is really stupid. So the fact that we're up for an award for a video is kind of cool."
"We did it with Sophie Muller, and she has a lot of great videos, and we just kind of trusted her by looking at her other videos," brother (and KOL guitarist) Matthew Followill added. "This is one of our favorite videos. I hope we do win. It would be nice. It would be cool."
So what was it about "Use Somebody" that made it the Kings' favorite clip to date? Well, it certainly wasn't Muller's original concept.
"The concept was kind of hard to swallow almost. She referenced, like, Bon Jovi's 'Dead or Alive' video or something like that, but she was like, 'Just trust me, it's gonna be cool,' " Jared said. "It's got a lot of stock footage. We like stock footage. So it's probably the least stupid video we've done, which is saying something."
This report is provided by MTV News
 
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