“100,000 People” by Kings of Leon

Kings of Leon’s “100,000 People” would apparently be a love song. And if so, the singer would be expressing how uniquely edified the addressee makes him feel. He does so by putting forth a number of diverse experiences he has gone through which ultimately, we can say, serve as metaphors. And going a bit out on a limb, what they all point back to, in a roundabout way, is the titular “100,000 people”, i.e. the vast number of individuals and by extension experiences he has encountered. But more to the point is the fact that even amongst such a large population and background, no one or nothing can make the singer feels like he does when he’s with the addressee.

But is that really what the song is about? Why don’t we find out from Caleb Followill what this song really means!

Caleb Followill talks to Apple Music about “100,000 People”

According to Caleb, in composing this song, he was looking for a medium through which he could reveal the “little pieces” of himself “without being obvious”. He thought that if he were to write lyrics that were clearly about his personal life, a lot of listeners would instantly say: “I relate to that” but “it doesn’t really go anywhere from that”. And that was something he didn’t want happening with “100,000 People”. He therefore took a different approach with it.

This creative approach saw him make the song about “something else” and then imbedding his personal story or experience into it.

And said experience was the challenges he witnessed his father-in-law go through as a result of suffering from dementia and his subsequent death.

So to cut the long story short, “100,000 People” is filled to the brim with personal lyrics. Simply put, it is about the real life experience that Caleb went through with his wife.

Writing and Production

This song was produced by Markus Dravs. And the writers are the Kings of Leon, which would be siblings Caleb, Nathan and Jared alongside Matthew Followill, their cousin.

Release Date

This track was released by RCA Records on 7 January 2021. It came out as one of two lead singles (along with “The Bandit“) from the band’s 2021 album entitled “When You See Yourself”.