In honor of Queens Of The Stone Age's upcoming performance at The National on Monday, December 16, as part of XL102's Miracle On Broad Street, we've reached back into our archives to republish this interview with Queens Of The Stone Age singer/guitarist Josh Homme, which originally ran in our May 2005 issue and has never appeared online before. Enjoy!
Josh Homme, iconoclastic smartass and 6’5” red-headed leader of Queens of The Stone Age, has been through a lot since releasing Songs for the Deaf in 2002. He kicked his best friend and lifelong foil, Nick Oliveri, out of the band. Then he invoked the posturing wrath of Rancid’s crew, the U.S. Thugs, when he started seeing the former wife of Tim Armstrong of Rancid, Brody Dalle (whom he will soon marry). He found himself in a press-based he-said / they-said brouhaha that he never engaged in, but which drove him back into the studio alone to do what he does best.
The record Lullabies to Paralyze leaves behind the many-headed beast that had been QOTSA up until Nick Oliveri stopped being allowed to play lunatic to Homme's affable, laid-back smoothie persona. Instead, it returns to the singular vision of Homme's first record under the name Queens of the Stone Age. Mark Lanegan, departing to pursue solo duties, left Homme alone with a new set of hired hands to continue as he started, with the vision of an artist very clear in his desire to be alright with shit and do his own thing. While out on tour, I got him on the phone to ask some questions and try to get a little reflection out of a guy notoriously unwilling to divulge much, preferring instead to crack wise whenever possible…
I have read over the years about you getting disillusioned with music after Kyuss and getting as far away from the music scene as possible. Going to Seattle, where you said music was dead. What was that about, and what has changed for you in the last five years to make you so willingly accept the role you have now?
After Kyuss broke up, I got so into the Stooges and Iggy Pop’s Lust for Life and The Idiot. Those two records, I was like you want to know what I have to say, just see these records. They so particularly said what I wanted to say, I thought, “Well what does anyone need my take for? I’ll talk to you guys later, bye.” Then I realized that I need my say. There’s nothing I can do about if anyone else likes it or understands it or anything. Simply because I love music and have to play. It doesn't matter that it has been said a million times. It hasn't been said by me.
I relate to that, but there has been a gradual increase in your stature as a pop culture figure, and I was wondering how you were handling that aspect of it.
Well, that’s tough to navigate. There’s no advice that will really help. Every situation is situational. I have this new thing in my life where people are like (sneering) “That guy’s a dick,” and I’m like, “Whoa wait a minute, man! What now?” Until we made the record with Grohl, we’d always had such a good relationship with the press. But then suddenly more people had the record so more people had an opinion, and it wasn't always what we expected. But it’s kind of tough for me to justify worrying too much; it doesn't seem like it’s enough to worry about. There’s nothing I can do.
So you have had to get used to it and move on?
Yeah, I mean, I think one of the things that I left behind was how Kyuss was so like a religion. We so fiercely abided by all of its rules, we kind of painted ourselves into a corner and it was negative. It was like, “everyone but us sucks.” Once Queens started, it was about dropping the punk rock guilt. I just wanted to do something honest and do it without being told what to do by somebody else. And that’s it, that simple.
I got so tired of some douchebag who’s scared of life trying to make me feel bad in the name of what is punk. Yet all the while, being a follower--for instance, the most uncontroversial haircut you can have is a mohawk. Maybe when people wouldn't serve you in a restaurant for sporting one… but now you just look like a joiner. I never found a scene that’s worth joining. When you join a scene, you are saying that you will do what the rules say. To me, what we’re doing is more punk rock than a punk rock band, because we are trying to infiltrate and destroy from the inside out.
I think you’re doing an admirable job at that, really. I’ve been coming to Queens shows since 1998 and to see the faces change at the shows… and the people that are getting won over and realizing that great music is just great music, even if the singer has a mullet.
Yeah, and not only have I had a mullet… I’m from the desert; I've had every kind of shitkicker haircut imaginable. That’s the point--I don’t give a fuck. It’s way more punk than some kid at Hot Topic buying a Dead Kennedys t-shirt. And I love the Kennedys, but I mean if this is about fashion, you can count me out.
One of the great things I’ve learned since Kyuss is that you can’t do it for money or drugs or chicks, because in the event you are successful, it will immediately blow up in your face. If you are writing for those reasons explicitly, you will lose. If you love your music so much that you put everything into it, then other people will love it too. If I do something because the record company tells me to and it works, I couldn’t be happy with that. I’d always wonder if my idea would’ve worked. If I did their idea and it didn’t work, I’d never be able to sleep at night.
Basically, it’s like things happen in my life and I write about it. Like, this record was supposed to be the sonic sound of the first record, but bigger. So much happened while making this record and some of it [was] negative. I found myself wanting to be like Rocky III and go back to Apollo’s gym, you know what I mean? Just get back to the basics of making music.
I read somewhere once that you had a plan for a progression of the records. Like they were sequels to each other in some ways.
When I first started the band and doing the first record, I was like, “this is the first of three.” I wanted to move away from Kyuss and not be pigeonholed; identify a new sound. But I didn’t want to lose all of those fans because I liked those people, you know? I wanted to expand, but ease in slowly to the idea. I’m not going to repeat myself forever. So the first record I started the evolution slowly. Then the second one, Rated R, fanned it out some more. Get a little more bizarre. And the third, Songs For the Deaf, brought back the hard edge but expanded the sound even more. Now I’m off on a new direction and not everyone is with me, but as an artist these days you really can’t do what people expect you to do. Isn’t the obligation to surprise you, and you not be able to guess where I’m going?
As I said in "Leg of Lamb," I don’t follow the laws of man. Only to stay out of jail, maybe. But if its 3 o’clock in the morning and the light turns red, I just go. I acknowledge that a traffic light is there to stop accidents and keep the flow of traffic going, but now it doesn’t matter. I’ve been pulled over 8 times for what I just said, but I haven’t gotten a ticket. I talk to the guy and say, “Can I ask you a question? What are the lights there for?” I don’t try to be a smartass with them. We’re following this thing but we’re not asking “why?” We’re doing something because we’re told to, but right now it doesn’t matter, and that’s the core of my philosophy of life. To me, music and life follow what I call “the philosophy.” Things like that don’t mean anything. Rules, laws… you have to know when they don’t matter and break them.