“He seemed very angry”: Josh Homme’s bizarre feud with Dwarves
Queens of the Stone Age frontman Josh Homme is no stranger to controversy. Most famous musicians seem to be adept at being embroiled in uncomfortable moments, and the stoner rock pioneer has had his share of them. One of the most head-scratching is his feud with Dwarves.
To clarify, Homme isn’t the kind of bigoted, contemptible figure that Randy Newman lampooned in his oft-misunderstood classic, ‘Short People’. His issue lay not with little people but with the punk band Dwarves, and specifically their singer Blag Dahlia – real name Paul Cafaro – who appeared as one of the radio DJs on Queens of the Stone Age’s 2002 masterpiece, Songs for the Deaf. Dahlia voiced the legendary ‘Kip Kasper’, who opens the drive from Los Angeles to the desert on KLON – KLONE Radio.
Their strange feud kicked off in November 2004. A Rolling Stone report from the time claimed that it was Homme who “instigated” a brawl with Dahlia at the Dragonfly Club in Los Angeles. Reportedly, after being backstage before Dwarves’ midnight show, Homme began pouring beer over the frontman’s head while singing, Whatcha gonna do?”
According to “eyewitnesses”, the two pushed each other, which concluded with Homme striking Dahlia over the head with a beer bottle. Interestingly, Dahlia performed with his band as planned and was later driven to the Hollywood Presbyterian Medical Center, where he received stitches. “He seemed very angry,” Dahlia joked to the publication. “It was almost as if somebody made him listen to one of his records.”
Presenting another side of the story was Eagles of Death Metal frontman and Homme’s friend Jesse Hughes, who saw the incident. He maintained that Homme only punched Dahlia after he pushed him. As for the punk frontman’s bleeding, he said: “You ever been to a Dwarves show?”
Allegedly, Homme’s issue with Dwarves started with the song ‘Massacre’ from their 2004 album, The Dwarves Must Die. The track features the lyrics, “This one goes out to Queens of the Trust Fund / You slept on my floor / And now I’m sleeping through your motherfucking album”. The song also features bassist Nick Oliveri, who was swiftly ejected from Queens of the Stone Age in January 2004 due to allegations of domestic violence. He has since become a full-time member of Dwarves, alongside his other projects such as Mondo Generator.
Reportedly, the police were not called after the incident, but security removed Homme from the venue. Furthermore, following the article’s publication, Homme would also reject its contents, and a strange message from ‘Dr. Insider’ on Queens of the Stone Age’s website would appear.
In that mysterious message was a quote from Homme, who is claimed to have said: “I’ve known Blag for 13 years or so, and he’s always been the sort of two-bit con artist that would screw a friend over for two bucks. Blag’s whimpering about me has been going on ever since he begged Nick to ‘produce’ the last Mondo [Generator] record (‘A Drug Problem That Never Existed’).”
He then suggested it was all about money when making the album and Dahlia being insecure. Homme added that he was only having fun when pouring beer over his head, and said: “‘Why would I need a bottle to kick Blag’s ass? I mean, who couldn’t kick Blag’s ass? Seriously.”
Regardless, Homme was ultimately arrested for the assault and pleaded no contest. He was ordered to stay at least 100 yards away from Dahlia and the club, sentenced to three years’ probation with community service, and forced to enter a rehab program for 60 days.
