Nasty Battle: Glee Creator Ryan Murphy & The Kings Of Leon

- Glee creator Ryan Murphy took a verbal swing at the band Kings of Leon in the latest issue of The Hollywood Reporter. Murphy is still sore over KOL denying the show’s request to license their song “Use Somebody” that happened back in August.

At the time, lead vocalist Caleb Followill said the group was denying a lot of licensing opportunities (not just Glee) because they wanted to be selective and not just sell their rights to make money.

“We got an offer to appear on an episode of Ugly Betty. They wanted us to play ourselves. We had some people call us up wanting to know if we’d allow Use Somebody to appear in the trailer for their next movie, and we turned them down,” Caleb Followill tells NME magazine. “Next day, they called back and tried to put us through to the star of the movie—I won’t name names, but he’s an incredibly famous actor—to let him try and convince us to agree to do it. I was like, ‘Man, don’t even waste your energy’.”

Let’s be honest. This happens a lot. An artist or group doesn’t want to “sell out” and they deny anything that’s popular. And as much as I happen to love Glee, I was kinda rooting for KOL on this one.

Murphy didn’t see it that way. In fact, he seems to have taken it a little too personally. Hit the link for the rest of the saga.

The Eat, Pray, Love director tells THR:

“F— you, Kings of Leon,” he says in THR’s cover story, out this week. “They’re self-centered assholes, and they missed the big picture. 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 think that was an over-the-top statement to a reasonable refusal. They weren’t snubbing Glee, Glee fans or anybody else, just trying to limit their music’s exposure. And “Use Somebody” was played ad nauseum for a while so I don’t see why it was such a huge deal.

And neither did Caleb Followill who told THR:

“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. We just said no to a license for a TV show, which we do a lot.”

So far, everything KOL has said is reasonable… until the drummer, Nathan Followill has to open his mouth on twitter:

“Dear Ryan Murphy, let it go. See a therapist, get a manicure, buy a new bra. Zip your lip and focus on educating seven year-olds how to say fuck.”

Unfortunately that is what he said. That tweet has been removed and an apology has been issued (also on twitter) but the damage was done.

Murphy was rightfully angry at that statement (and so am I.) Murphy said to Perez Hilton:

“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. 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 [sic], 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.”

The whole debacle is truly ridiculous. KOL have the right to say no to Glee or anyone else who wants to use their music. It should never have gotten this far. But Nathan had to just take it to another level and take a swipe at Murphy’s sexuality. source.