Lucius wants to be, well, treated with kindness after Harry Styles used uncredited vocals by the duo on his song “Treat People With Kindness.” Lucius, who released the new album Second Nature on April 8, told the Los Angeles Times Styles didn’t give them a feature credit on the song after they asked. As the band tells it, Styles originally asked them to sing when they were working on a different song. “We thought he was gonna add on top after and that we’d be in the background,” Holly Laessig told the Times. Jess Wolfe added, “Two weeks later, they sent us the track, and it was literally us.” Vulture has reached out to a representative for Styles for comment. As the Times noted, Styles has never had a credited feature on his solo music; however, Lucius has been credited for smaller features with other artists, including backing vocals on the War on Drugs’ “I Don’t Live Here Anymore” and Brandi Carlile’s “You and Me on the Rock” in 2021. The duo also performed “Treat People With Kindness” live with Styles at his Fine Line release show in 2019.
“Treat People With Kindness” has over 116 million streams on Spotify, more than double Lucius’s top song (“Two of Us on the Run,” with 51 million). “It just hurt,” Wolfe said, noting Styles has otherwise been “charming and kind” to the band. “Here was an opportunity to spread the love a little bit, which he purports to do all the time. And it could’ve really helped us.” Wolfe added that Lucius “would” perform with Styles again, but they “don’t know if that’s gonna happen.” Styles is currently promoting his third album, Harry’s House, out May 20, and prepares to headline Coachella on April 15 and 22.
