Kings of Leon made a surprising announcement on September 30, 2026, regarding the latest single from their upcoming album. “Cold Blue Dawn” will be featured on O My Beloved, releasing November 6. But the band dropped a lyric video ahead of time that had them partnering up with an unlikely source.
With assistance from The Weather Channel, Kings of Leon created the “first-of-its-kind” lyric video from satellite images of Earth. “Built entirely from the Earth itself, the visual utilizes satellite imagery from NASA’s historic Landsat program to spell out every word of the song using the natural contours of rivers, coastlines, farmland, and mountain ranges,” the band said in a press release, per People.
Their partnership with The Weather Channel went beyond a need to make a lyric video, however. According to the release, the Followill family—which includes Caleb, Nathan, Jared, and their cousin Matthew—has been longtime fans of The Weather Channel.
“My family was already die-hard Weather Channel followers,” said Caleb. But the idea for “Cold Blue Dawn” was additionally inspired by a video that The Weather Channel made featuring a Kings of Leon track.
Kings of Leon and The Weather Channel Team Up For Lyric Video Using NASA’s Archive of Earth’s Surface
It seems that Kings of Leon and The Weather Channel had a mutual respect for one another. As unlikely as that may seem. The band saw the “viral clip” that the channel created, which paired an extreme weather formation with their song “Pyro”. From there, it probably seemed like the perfect opportunity to connect.
“We saw what they did with our song immediately and thought it was beautiful,” Caleb’s statement continued. “We learned they were making music a larger part of what they do, and we reached out immediately to try and do something together.”
He added, “They have been super cool to work with, and we hope this unlikely partnership keeps going because it makes a lot of sense to us.”
The “Cold Blue Dawn” video is a creative use of NASA and the USGS’ Landsat satellite. Launched in 1972, it’s the longest and most extensive archive of Earth’s surface. It’s a crucial archive for land managers, scientists, environmentalists, policymakers, and now musicians making lyric videos.
An interactive page called Your Name in Landsat sources images from the archive that resemble letters. It then creates a graphic of a name or any other word spelled out using those natural land formations.
Nature, our Earth, and its weather “shapes the moments we remember, the places we love and the experiences that connect us, much like music,” said CEO of The Weather Company Rohit Agarwal in a statement. In a way, this lyric video is more than a cool if unlikely collaboration. It’s also a way to appreciate the Earth’s incredible natural phenomena.
Agarwal continued, “This collaboration with Kings of Leon brings that idea to life in a completely new way, using science and creativity to remind us just how extraordinary it is to experience the world around us.”
Photo by Jeff Kravitz/FilmMagic
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