They are one of the biggest bands in the world and are currently celebrating the release of their new album Mechanical Bull.
But Kings of Leon will come crashing back down to Earth on Sunday night when a television audience will get to witness their worst ever “performance” – courtesy of a Perth film-maker and musician.
Twenty-six year old Tom Mitchell “shredded” the band performing thier hit single Sex on Fire three years ago and since then the spoof video has racked up more than two million hits on YouTube.
Shredding involves manipulating the video and sound of a band’s performance to make it sound comically bad.
In Kings of Leon’s case, Tom edited footage of the band performing at the Reading Festival in 2009 and completely rebuilt the soundtrack to include ridiculous off-key singing, erratic guitar playing and wonky drumming.
Now Tom’s video is to be seen by a mainstream television audience when it is screened on popular Channel 4 programme Rude Tube on Sunday night.
“It’s been on YouTube for a few years but I never thought it would get on something like Rude Tube because of copyright issues,” said Tom.
“But I got a message from one of the production team a few weeks ago. I thought it was a wind-up but phoned back and it was the production company that does Rude Tube.”
Although the video pokes fun at Kings of Leon, the group have given it their seal of approval. One of their roadies contacted Tom to say how much they had enjoyed the clip.
But its success has stopped Tom from shredding more artists.
“A lot of people have asked me to do more but because the Kings of Leon one is so popular it might be difficult to top,” he said.