Sex on Fire chords

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Sex on Fire | Chords + Lyrics

Intro

||: E E6 | E E6 | E E6 | E E6 |
| C#m C#mb6 | C#m C#mb6 | C#m C#mb6 | C#m C#mb6 :||

Verse 1

Chorus 1

| E | E5 | Emaj7 | E |
You.
| C#madd9 | C#m | Amaj7#11 | Amaj7 |
Your sex is on fire.

Verse 2

Chorus 2

| E | E5 | Emaj7 | E |
You.
| C#madd9 | C#m | Amaj7#11 | Amaj7 |
Your sex is on fire.
| E | E5 | Emaj7 | E |
Consumed.
| C#madd9 | C#m | Amaj7#11 | Amaj7 |
With what’s just transpired.

Verse 3

Chorus 3

Breakdown chorus

| E5 N.C | E5 N.C | E5 N.C | E5 B5 |
You.
| C#5 N.C | C#5 N.C | C#5 N.C | C#5 G#5 |
Your sex is on fire, ah, ah, ah.
| E5 N.C | E5 N.C | E5 N.C | E5 B5 |
Consumed.
| C#5 N.C | C#5 N.C | A5 N.C | A5 B5 |
With what’s just transpired.

Outro chorus

| E | E5 | Emaj7 | E |
And you.
| C#madd9 | C#m | Amaj7#11 | Amaj7 |
Your sex is on fire.
| E | E5 | Emaj7 | E |
Consumed.
| C#madd9 | C#m | Amaj7#11 | Amaj7 | E5 N.C |
With what’s just transpired.

Sex On Fire’s chords and progressions

For about a decade after its release in 2008, Kings Of Leon‘s Sex on Fire was every covers band’s encore.

Some still play it, and everyone attempting to make a living playing guitar is expected to know it so let’s get Sex on Fire’s chords right as it still pops up from time to time.

The riff is an E6 (chord I), quickly moving down to an E5. Although the 2nd guitar is playing an E so let’s describe it as E6 – E.

The same idea is repeated over C#m (chord VI), although now the 6 is a b6. In later verses, the bass moves to an A, making that C#m and C#mb6 an Amaj7 instead.

Here are the basic verse chords for verses 2 and 3 (verse 1 repeats the first two lines):

| E E6 | E E6 | E E6 | E E6 |
| C#m C#mb6 | C#m C#mb6 | C#m C#mb6 | C#m C#mb6 |
| E E6 | E E6 | E E6 | E E6 |
| C#m C#mb6 | C#m C#mb6 | Amaj7 | Amaj7 |

The chorus explores that I chord even more as it emphasizes different parts of the triad – 5 – maj7 – triad, like this:

| E | E5 | Emaj7 | E |

The second line, again goes to the C#m (chord VI), now looking for the madd9. When the bass change to A, we get the big-sounding Amaj7#11 and Amaj7, like this:

Finally, the breakdown section uses 5 chords and stops, like this:

| E5 N.C | E5 N.C | E5 N.C | E5 B5 |
| C#5 N.C | C#5 N.C | C#5 N.C | C#5 G#5 |
| E5 N.C | E5 N.C | E5 N.C | E5 B5 |
| C#5 N.C | C#5 N.C | A5 N.C | A5 B5 |

Sex on Fire TAB

By now you’re probably thinking:

That’s all well and good in case I need to build an acoustic guitar arrangement but if I’m standing in front of a wedding crowd at ten to eleven on a Saturday night, trying to make a few hundred so I can pay the rent playing my guitar, that Amaj7#11 is not going to help!

All I need is to play the riff, can you not just give me some TAB that works?

Fair enough, here’s the TAB for Sex on Fire’s intro and verse.

Sex on Fire chords and TAB for the intro and verse

Next, we have the chorus riff for Sex on Fire. Here it is with chords and TAB. I hope you can see all intervals and therefore understand how and why Amaj7#11 is named as it is.

Sex on Fire chords and TAB for the chorus.

Finally, here’s what the 2nd guitar plays over the C#m chord. I could have called this a C#11sus2 but I thought that might be pushing your tolerance for chord names a bit too far!