Jared Followill

Jared Followill (born Michael Jared Followill) is an American musician best known as the bassist for the Grammy-winning rock band Kings of Leon. He was born in Memphis, Tennessee, and spent his childhood traveling the American South alongside brothers and future bandmates Nathan and Caleb due to their father’s work as a preacher. He grew up traveling through the southern United States with his family while his father worked as a Pentecostal preacher. He attended Mount Juliet High School after the family settled in Tennessee.

Jared’s music career began when he and his brothers, along with their cousin, Matthew, formed Kings of Leon in 1999. Though he had never played bass before, he managed to learn the instrument just in time to record the band’s first EP in 2003. With Kings of Leon’s early blend of Southern rock and garage influences, the band steadily built a following.

Over the years, Jared helped anchor some of the band’s biggest successes. They saw mainstream success with albums such as Only by the Night (2008) and Come Around Sundown (2010). Their songs “Sex on Fire” and “Use Somebody” went platinum in multiple countries, and the latter won them a Grammy Award for Best Rock Song in 2010.

He has also explored side projects, including forming the duo Smoke & Jackal with Mona guitarist Nick Brown.

Jared eloped with model Martha Patterson in 2012. The couple share two daughters: Adeline James Followill (born in 2020) and Charlotte Ann Followill (born in 2024).