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15 Rejected Names for Kings of Leon Spinoff Smoke & Jackal

Either Smoke or Jackal / Photo via Getty

The best e-mail line we read all day was this: “Jared Followill and Nick Brown Unite as Smoke & Jackal.”

You know Jared Followill as the bassist from Kings of Leon. You might know Nick Brown as the frontman for the very Kings of Leon-esque Mona. Turns out these two have decided to join Southern arena rock forces as, yep, Smoke & Jackal. The band’s debut EP, EP1, is out October 16. The strongly Leonine, somewhat Mona-y, first single, “No Tell,” is out now and you can listen to it below. It sounds like the work of a band called Smoke & Jackal, which is to say slightly rowdy and kinda appealingly cornball, as if it belonged in a movie of the same name. Maybe the movie is about a good ol’ boy roustabout who’s always getting into fixes with the local sheriff while trying to win the heart of his gingham-wearing daughter. Which makes us wonder: What names did Followill and Brown reject?

Here’s what our sources tell us:
1. Hickory & and the Stix
2. Kin
3. Boss Fatback
4. Dip & Chaw
5. Molly Hatchet’s Chambers
6. Britches’n’Breeches
7. Long Toke & Grumblefuss
8. Screaming Cheetah Wheelies
9. Maiden Dixie
10. Gator!
11. Steamcleaner
12. Gator 2!
13. The Tony Walker Band
14. Alamo & Dungeness
15. Flying V