Josh Homme couldn’t leave his bed for seven months due to health issues
Queens of the Stone Age frontman Josh Homme has revealed he was left bedridden for seven months due to an illness which caused his band to cancel their 2024 tour.
Last year, Queens of the Stone Age were forced to halt their European tour after playing several shows, including headline dates at a series of huge festivals, due to Homme needing to return to the United States for emergency surgery.
The final show they played before the cancellation was at the Catacombs in Paris, which Homme knew full well would be their last for the foreseeable future. Despite being in immense pain, he knew the show, which is now available as a live album, couldn’t be rescheduled and found a way to carry on.
Reflecting on the challenging period in a new interview with Consequence, Homme said,” I was in a very difficult physical spot, and I’m really thankful that I was, actually. I couldn’t think about anything else but where we were. It’s better that I was unwell, because I think if I was well, we would’ve maybe been more ‘California’ about it and thought ‘Man, it’s so cool to be here…’ And something about that kind of sucks.”
He explained further of the Paris performance: “I performed in the Catacombs, and within about 20 hours I was being sedated and put under.”
Elaborating on his health issues, Homme continued: “Then I spent the next seven months in bed. I had a lot of time to think, you know? I was told I was gonna spend 18 months, two years there, so I was not excited.”
Homme, who has previously beaten cancer, did not disclose details of the health issue that caused him to be bedridden for seven months for privacy reasons.
It wasn’t until December that Homme’s life began to resemble an essence of normality after finding out good news from doctors, which gave him an urge to get back to doing what he does best. He recalled: “I felt like a rodeo bull leaning on the gate. It’s like, when you open this fucking gate, I’m gonna run. I’m gonna run.”
Queens of the Stone Age have now returned to the road. Later this month, they will play two huge shows at Don Valley Bowl in Sheffield, and in October, they will embark on the European leg of The Catacombs tour, including a date at London’s Royal Albert Hall on October 29th.
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