Iggy Pop: the musician Josh Homme called “the last of the one-and-onlys”
Queens of the Stone Age leader Josh Homme is part of a dying breed in rock and roll. He’s a maverick who follows his intuitions and is also graced with an old-school mindset thanks to his musical forefathers. While Homme has a whole class of heroes, few have impacted him as prominently as Iggy Pop.
Although Homme was aware of Iggy and The Stooges from a young age, his music wasn’t designed for children. However, as the years progressed and the QOTSA frontman garnered more life experience as he traversed into young adulthood, Iggy reappeared in his existence, and this time round, everything made perfect sense.
Speaking to BBC 6 Music about the genesis of his love for Iggy, Homme recalled: “I would say he was one of the biggest (influences) on me. I first heard The Stooges when I was about 12 years old, and I didn’t like it. I traded the record immediately. I wasn’t ready for what that was. I was too young to get the subversive beauty of what that was, and I didn’t hear Iggy Pop again until I was 20.”
The Californian rocker then stated that while he was a member of his first band, Kyuss, they followed a strict set of rules that he labelled their “bible”. This included restricting who they could jam with outside the group and even the bands they could hear in their spare time. Despite the regulations, Iggy forced his way into his life when these limitations had begun to rub Homme “the wrong way”.
By 1995, Kyuss had split, but Homme’s adoration of Iggy weathered the storm, and now he was free from restrictions, he could allow himself to be influenced by his hero. Decades later, the Queens of the Stone Age leader had the privilege of being a member of Iggy’s band for the 2016 album Post Pop Depression.
The album remains the highest charting of Iggy’s esteemed career and featured Arctic Monkeys’ Matt Helders on drums. While both Homme and Helders are stars in their own right, it’s impossible to reject the advances of Iggy Pop when he comes calling.
At the time of the record’s release, Iggy and Homme sat down with The Guardian for an interview. Once the elder statesmen of rock ‘n’ roll had retired to a restaurant following the conclusion of the chat, the QOTSA singer stayed around and adoringly said of his collaborator: “Lemmy is gone. Bowie is gone. He’s the last of the one-and-onlys.”
Homme continued: “It took balls to be him: a little guy with a big dick scaring people in Detroit. Everyone should take a knee for Iggy. He deserves it. He never got [the respect or the acclaim], mostly by his own hand, but he made the shit that’s spawned more bands than any other person, ever. Bring on the statues, you motherfuckers!”
Spending months with his hero could have made Homme see Iggy in an unwanted light and ruined his perception of the former Stooges singer. Instead, seeing these extra layers of the rocker reveal themselves to him only enhanced his level of respect for “the last of the one-and-onlys”.
