Formation In early 1993, guitarist and singer
Roine Stolt had written material for his third solo album
The Flower King and sought musicians to perform it. He had wanted to release a
progressive rock-style album for a while and felt the time was right to pursue the project. The album features Stolt on vocals, guitar, bass and keyboards; Jaime Salazar on drums; and
Hasse Fröberg on vocals. It was recorded in Sweden between May 1993 and January 1994. In preparation for Stolt's concert tour to support the album's release, Stolt, Salazar, and Fröberg were joined by Stolt's brother Michael on bass and Tomas Bodin on keyboards. After they decided to become a full-time band, they officially adopted the name The Flower Kings, named after Stolt's album. Stolt had produced a list of potential titles for the record, one of which was "The Flower King", and chose it because of its positive meaning and its reference to the
hippie era of the 1960s. Zoltan Csörsz was replaced by new drummer Marcus Liliequist for one album, but returned for the 2007 album,
The Sum of No Evil. He was subsequently replaced by Erik Hammarström in 2008. In 2008, Ola Heden, previously of Reingold's side project
Karmakanic, joined on guitar, vocals and keyboards. This marked the arrival of German drummer Felix Lehrmann. On 24 March 2021, Roine Stolt announced two big projects. The Flower Kings are working on a brand new album "in the same innocence" of
Stardust We Are. By the end of 2021, Stolt explained that Jonas Reingold could no longer participate in the touring line-up due to his commitments with Steve Hackett's band, but Reingold still plays some of the songs in the studio. On January 7, 2022, the band announced their 15th studio album
By Royal Decree would be released on 4 March 2022, while also announcing that founding member Michael Stolt returned after more than two decades to contribute bass and vocals, splitting duties with current bassist Jonas Reingold. During 2022 and 2023, the band's first nine albums all got re-released in remastered and slightly remixed versions, up to and including the album
Paradox Hotel. The 16th studio album,
Look at You Now, was announced for an 8 September 2023 release, alongside a European tour about to take place in October 2023. In April 2023, Zach Kamins revealed he left the group due to complicating touring logistics and Daniel Lantz joined for the summer shows. In July, the group mentioned that Lalle Larsson will play for the rest of the upcoming European dates. The 17th studio album,
Love, was released in May 2025. ==Personnel==