Josh Homme - Queens of The Stone Age - 2022

Credit: Far Out / Spotify

Josh Homme tells comical story of a Mark Lanegan fight

Wed 21 June 2023 12:28, UK

Queens of the Stone frontman Josh Homme and late Screaming Trees vocalist Mark Lanegan enjoy an extensive history. The two musicians met in the 1990s, and after Homme’s band Kyuss split in 1995, he was enlisted as the rhythm guitarist of Screaming Trees for the summer Lollapalooza tour of the following year.

During this run, Homme and Lanegan became close friends. Yet, tensions arose, and bickering ensued. As a result, Homme founded Gamma Ray, a group that became Queens of the Stone Age after receiving a cease and desist from a band of the same name. Although they might not have known it at the time, the stage was set for the frontmen to make history together.

Lanegan first collaborated with Homme’s new band on their second album, 2000’s Rated R. He added his distinctively gravelly voice to the songs ‘Leg of Lamb’, ‘Autopilot’, and ‘I Think I Lost My Headache’. The record was so successful that shortly after releasing his solo album, Field Songs, Lanegan became a full-time member of Queens of the Stone Age.

The duo then worked with the rest of Queens of the Stone Age on the album long-deemed to be their finest, Songs for the Deaf, with Lanegan singing the lead on tracks such as ‘Song for the Dead’, ‘Song for the Deaf’, ‘Hangin’ Tree’ and ‘God Is in the Radio’. Lanegan’s final album as a full-time Queens of the Stone Age member was the 2005 effort Lullabies to Paralyze.

After his departure, he later provided background vocals for the Era Vulgaris song ‘River in the Road’ and collaborated with the group on a handful of other songs. Notably, Homme and Lanegan also co-wrote the theme song for Anthony Bourdain: Parts Unknown, one of the most influential travel and food shows of the 21st century.

As Homme revealed earlier this year, the death of Lanegan – who passed away in February 2022 – and numerous other friends in recent times has been a formidable blow to take, leading him to implement a “self-imposed exile” due to the grief. He said: “In the last few years, I have mourned seven deaths, including those of people really close to me. So by the time the pandemic started, I was in self-imposed exile. I wasn’t able to make music at that time – I wasn’t mentally or emotionally ready for it.”

On June 16th, though, Queens of the Stone Age released their first album in six years, In Times New Roman…, and Homme is back at it. In a recent interview with Zane Lowe on Apple Music, he shared several fond memories of Mark Lanegan. The most hilarious anecdote of the collection detailed a fight between Lanegan and Jason Reece of the influential alternative rock band And You Will Know Us by the Trail of Dead while on tour.

Homme recalled: “There was also the time when we toured with that band, And You Will Know Us by the Trail of Dead, and the drummer kid – I think his name is Jason or something – anyways, he’s kind of hyper at the time, this was many years ago on the Songs for the Deaf tour, and Lanegan ends up beating him up. They get in a fistfight, and Lanegan kicks his ass. In the alleyway, in this puddle of water, in the alley puddle, which is ‘You decide’, it’s a dealer’s choice of what’s the liquid.”

The following part of the story exhibits the comedic side of Mark Lanegan, with him quickly switching his attention after the fight to a matter more pressing. Homme continued: “Anyways, the next morning, I’m talking to Lanegan, and he’s going ‘, God damn it, the thing with this’, and I’m laughing because that was my job, to just enjoy his crotchetyness – which I did well… And the kid, Jason, walks up and goes, ‘Hey man, I’m really sorry I said all that stuff to you last night.’ And Lanegan, he doesn’t even look over, and he goes, ‘Yeah, I’m sorry I kicked your ass’. It was more, ‘What are we… What about these sandwiches? They’re broken.'”

Looking back on another vintage Mark Lanegan flourish, Homme said: “There was another moment, and he was fucked, and perhaps I was too. It was the morning, so no business still being that way. And he’s kind of out on the couch, and Joey (Castillo) is making a sandwich, and Lanegan just sits up like Dracula, you know, rises, looks over at Joey and goes, ‘Where’d ya download that sandwich?’ I just can’t fucking get shit like that out of my mind.”

See Josh Homme in conversation below.