Kings of Leon Press Release Condemns St. Louis’ Verizon Wireless Amphitheater, Labels “Pigeon Infestation”

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Kings of Leon Jared Followill Bird Poop
Reenactment of upward facing bass playing that may have gotten Jared into a sticky situation.
Last night, Kings of Leon canceled their St. Louis concert after playing only 3 songs on-stage. This was a disappointment to thousands of their fans, many of whom traveled hundreds of miles to see the band. Their excuse? According to drummer Nathan Followill, brother of the victim, “We had to bail, pigeons shitting in jareds mouth. Too unsanitary to continue.” He tells fans, “Don’t take it out on Jared, it’s the fucking venues fault. You may enjoy being shit on but we don’t. Sorry for all who traveled many miles.”

Read about Kings of Leon canceling their St. Louis Concert here.

Here is a press release, written by the PR camp for Kings of Leon. They claim that their is a “pigeon infestation” at Verizon Wireless Amphitheater, that “forced the Kings of Leon to walk offstage after three songs last night.”

Here is their official statement:

“PIGEON INFESTATION FORCES KINGS OF LEON OFFSTAGE EARLY IN ST. LOUIS

An infestation of pigeons living in the rafters of the Verizon Amphitheatre in St. Louis, MO, forced the Kings of Leon to walk offstage after three songs last night. Even though opening bands The Postelles and The Stills came offstage complaining of getting riddled with large amounts of pigeon excrement, the Kings of Leon decided to carry on regardless. The band felt it would be unfair to the fans to cancel the show at that late moment.

“I’m surprised they stayed on for as many songs as they did,” said Vector Management’s Andy Mendelsohn, who reps KoL. “Jared was hit several times during the first two songs. On the third song, when he was hit in the cheek and some of it landed near his mouth, they couldn’t deal any longer. It’s not only disgusting — it’s a toxic health hazard. They really tried to hang in there. We want to apologize to our fans in St. Louis and will come back as soon as we can.”

When the band arrived earlier in the day, the venue warned management that there had been a significant pigeon infestation problem with summer shows over the years, but they were doing all they could to fix it.

“We couldn’t believe what The Postelles and The Stills looked like after their sets,” said bassist Jared Followill. “We didn’t want to cancel the show, so we went for it. We tried to play [but] it was ridiculous.”

Kings of Leon are headed to Chicago tonight to perform at the First Midwest Bank Amphitheatre as scheduled.”

What do you think of the statement released by Kings of Leon’s publicist? Is it legit, or just an excuse? Leave a comment below!

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7 Comments

  • Reply
    Matt , July 25, 2010

    Publicists get paid to spin things to protect their clients interest. This is nothing more than an excuse and does nothing to satisfy their very disappointed fans.

    One good thing about press releases is no one can ask questions to validate that it is the truth or not. Everyone is just supposed to take it as ‘fact’ and move on.

    Fans located in the first few rows have stated that one of the opening bands guitarist was almost shat on, they joked about it, moved out of the line of fire and kept playing. I also read that workers from the venue went into the rafters while the KOL stage was being setup and attempted to get rid of the pigeon (yes, one pigeon). Fans have also stated that Jared was hit once in the shoulder during the third song and the entire band left the stage very quickly when the song was over.

    It is also interesting that such an infestation of pigeons resulted in only the bands being shat on, but no fans.

    Even if what they say is true, both The Postelles and The Stills managed to play awesome sets. You would think the headliner would have been able to tough it out for the FANS!

    It is good that Live Nation is going to refund the ticket prices, but as I’ve seen other complain, what about t-shirts that no one wants or all the money spent on refreshments, hotels, travel costs, etc. I guess the FANS just have to bite the bullet on those expenses.

    I was a huge KOL fan prior to this experience and quite frankly would not ever pay to see them again or to buy another one of their CD’s. Hopefully, the other St. Louis fans that were also shat on by KOL will not forget this experience and will make the band pay the only way we can – not supporting them with our money.

    I hope all the proceeds from this event go to The Postelles and The Stills as they deserve it for enduring such horrific conditions. Additionally, I think KOL should have to pony up for the expenses incurred by the local police departments that had to be brought in to assist in controlling the very angry crowd.

  • Reply
    Jim , July 25, 2010

    Pigeons are one of the dirtiest and most disease ridden birds in North America. Pigeon poop is highly corrosive and damages equipment. It contains parasites, fungus and bacteria dangerous to people. Diseases include histoplasmosis, encephalitis, salmonella, meningitis, toxoplasmosis and more. Ectoparasites include fleas, lice, mites, ticks, and other biting pests.

    It’s completely understandable that no one would want to perform under those conditions. The poop will destroy instruments and equipment and transfer diseases and parasites to the performers.

    The US Air Force considers them a medium priority hazard to aricraft and personnel.

    St. Louis can’t figure out how to control the pigeons!!! Yikes!! There’s ways to do it including bird mesh, fine wire and fishing line but I’m sure some nut job animal hugger is going to choose disease ridden birds over the humans. Where’s the health dept??? The amphitheater stage should be condemned (and closed) until the pigeon problem is under control. Un-flaming believeable!

  • Reply
    Buitrefax , July 25, 2010

    This is a joke and just proves that Kings of Leon are no rock and roll band. If this happened during the first 3 songs, then where are the photos? As a pro concert photographer myself, I know that KOL are a pain the a** when it comes to photos because they think they’re the next Rolling Stones or something, when really, they’ll be lucky to be playing state fairs for 1,000 people in 5 years. So, where are the photos? And where are the photos of the opening bands that were supposedly covered in bird s**t? KOL = nancy boys.

  • Reply
    Ari Kovair , July 26, 2010

    I’m sure someone has a video of this band and the bands before it that would clearly show whether the pigeon allegations are true or not. I’m sure it won’t be long before the promoter sues them.

  • Reply
    Charlie , July 26, 2010

    Please, please let there be a video of this. Lol.

  • Reply
    Jenn , July 27, 2010

    I was at the concert in the 8th row and I saw something dropping down in one place, it wasn’t everywhere!! It was over where the bassist would be standing, it happened probably once every 20-30 mins. I thought it was water but apparently it was pigeon poo. From what I saw it was seriously not enough to cancel the concert!
    I am (was) a huge KOL fan still pretty upset about the whole thing!! I’m glad we got reimbursed but I didn’t drive 3 hrs. to see 3 songs I wanted to see the concert! There are a few things that would have made me feel better about the situation.
    1. If a band member would have come out and explained the situation instead of bolting and leaving everyone thinking it was a JOKE!
    2. Could they not have at least tried to rig up a freaking tarp or something to get them through the
    show!!!
    They seriously let down thousands of fans and I don’t believe they will ever get any of them back.

    I understand that Pigeon crap is unsanitary but maybe they should have dealt and decided to never come back to this venue instead of disappointing thousands of fans!

  • Reply
    Tony , September 24, 2010

    Ok, wow. Jim is obviously on the bands payroll…right?

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