Kings of Leon originally embraced country music. While there, they met songwriter Angelo Petraglia, who helped the siblings hone their songwriting skills and introduced them to the musical influences of Thin Lizzy, the Rolling Stones and the Clash in particular. Their youngest brother, Jared, who had briefly attended public school, was more influenced by the music of the Pixies and the Velvet Underground. When he and their cousin Matthew also moved to Nashville in 1999, Kings of Leon was formed. They named the band after their grandfather Leon, who died in January 2014. By 2002, Nathan and Caleb had received interest from a
Brothers of the Baladi the group and Beach and Kearsey were joined by Attillo (keyboards) and Multi instrumentalist Tariq Banzi (oud, guitar, nay, bouzouki, dumbek, drums and riq). Banzi would later team up with his wife, Julia Banzi, to form the Al Andalus Ensemble. During this time, the Brothers had started to feel confined by traditional Middle Eastern music, and sought to broaden their spectrum by adding other strains of world music, including Celtic, reggae, and Afro-Cuban pop, to klezmer, Cajun, and rock. The band teamed up with former Santana percussionist Michael Shrieve, who produced the Brothers' album "Eye on the World", which includes