Kings of Leon: Babies changed band

Kings of Leon think they are a "different band" after having children.

The rock group is comprised of brothers Caleb, Nathan, Jared and their cousin Matthew, and they all share the surname Followill.

Frontman Caleb famously sparked controversy after ditching his siblings in the middle of a Dallas, Texas gig in November 2011.

But the quartet are back together and insist they are stronger than ever since starting families.

"There were problems for us, for sure. We were on the road too long, it was affecting my voice and we were sick of the sight of each other," 31-year-old Caleb admitted to British newspaper The Sun's Sun+.

"So we went away, took a break, had babies and now we are back. A different band."

Caleb marks the lowest point of his career as having a steroid injection to help his voice at the time he was feuding with the band.

The rocker claims that although he loves his relatives, he found being around them so often very stressful.

"My voice couldn't stand the pace. We'd been on the road continuously since we were kids," he shared. "Of course we had arguments. We are family but even families don't spend the time we all spent together."

Kings of Leon feel the time apart to focus on their relationships helped them appreciate each other.

Caleb is now happy to be back and reveals the band are "are a lot fresher" after coming to the brink of breaking up. "We really were and we needed a break," the star continued.

"But we've had time off, we've nearly all had babies and even Jared has grown up and got married. We are back together as family and we like each other. So it was fun to get back into the studio again. It's easy to lose inspiration when you've been doing it for too long."

Caleb has a 15-month-old girl Dixie Pearl with model wife Lily Aldridge. His 34-year-old drummer brother Nathan is married to singer Jessie Baylin and the pair have an eight-month-old daughter named Violet together.

Matthew, 28, is dad to two-year-old Knox Cameron with British wife Johanna Bennett and 26-year-old bassist Jared, 26 is hitched to model Martha Patterson.