‘Glee’ Creator Lashes Out At Kings Of Leon
Kings of Leon have received many media requests since their long overdue rise to fame. They've turned down an offer to appear on the TV show Ugly Betty and denied the hit Fox show Glee from using their music. Well the man behind Glee didn't like that very much and he's MAD.
"F___ you, Kings of Leon," Ryan Murphy said in an interview with The Hollywood Reporter. "They're self-centered assholes."
Ouch.
While I personally don't get the appeal of Glee, there is no denying the fact that the show is hugely successful. It's helped expose the music of acts like Cee Lo Green and Florence and the Machine to a younger audience. Murphy also says that the show offers an educational value to today's youth that Kings of Leon do not realize.
"They missed that a 7-year-old kid can see someone close to their age singing a Kings of Leon song, which will maybe make them want to join a glee club or pick up a musical instrument. It’s like, OK, hate on arts education. You can make fun of Glee all you want, but at its heart, what we really do is turn kids on to music.”
I don't know about you, but that statement sounds a little self-centered to me. Is Glee supposed to be the absolute best place to find good music? Not for me. They had a Britney Spears-inspired episode for goodness sake.
Kings of Leon frontman Caleb Followill had the following response:
“This whole Glee thing is a shock to us. It’s gotten out of hand. At the time of the request, we hadn’t even seen the show. It came at the end of that record cycle, and we were over promoting [“Use Somebody”]. This was never meant as a slap in the face to Glee or to music education or to fans of the show. We’re not sure where the anger is coming from.”
Caleb's brother and Kings of Leon drummer Nathan Followill wasn't as diplomatic about the whole thing as he tweeted the following: "Dear Ryan Murphy, let it go. See a therapist, get a manicure, buy a new bra. Zip your lip and focus on educating 7yr olds how to say f___."
THAT prompted Murphy to give his own response in an e-mail to Perez Hilton:
"Just read Nathan Followill's Tweet…in which he implied I should ‘get a manicure and buy a bra.’ Wow. That's a homophobe badly in need of some education. I'm all for manicures, don't wear a bra. Would guess most gay dudes don't. But it's telling that Nathan can reduce a group of people to a mean-spirited cliché, in a time where young gay men are killing themselves all over the country because of hatred like this.
That said, I would love to sit down with Nathan or any member of Kings and Leon, and tell them how on Glee we actually love their music, and support their artistry…but cannot condone or even laugh at their clear disdain of gay people. "
Nathan Followill has apparently removed the offending tweet and posted the following on his Twitter page:
"I'm sorry 4 anyone that misconstrued my comments as homophobic or misogynistic. I'm so not that kind of person. I really do apologize."
While I do not believe Kings of Leon are gay bashers, Nathan definitely could have picked better words to defend their decision. On a related note, Murphy also took offense to ex-Guns N' Roses guitarist Slash's remarks about the show, who said Glee is worse than Grease.
“Usually I find that people who make those comments, their careers are over; they’re uneducated and quite stupid.”
Who knew that a show about singing high school kids could cause so much real life drama?
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