The Kenny Rogers song that made Josh Homme want to make music
Long before Josh Homme became the renowned frontman of American alt-rockers Queens of the Stone Age, he was a teen roaming the deserts of California looking for something to occupy his time. After stumbling upon the guitar at the age of nine, he formed his first band five years later. Led by a 14-year-old Homme and his schoolmates, heavy metal outfit Kyuss became famed for their generator parties in the desert.
By 1995, Kyuss had gone their separate ways, and Homme found himself in Seattle to study at university. A year later, he formed Gamma Ray, later to be renamed Queens of the Stone Age. The band found mainstream acclaim after the addition of Dave Grohl in the early 2000s with the release of the concept album Songs for the Deaf, which birthed hit singles like ‘No One Knows’ and ‘Go With The Flow’.
Since then, Homme has been the driving force behind the band, remaining the only consistent member. Queens of the Stone Age have become one of the most influential and wide-spanning alt-rock bands in the world, collaborating with the likes of Elton John, PJ Harvey, and Julian Casablancas.
Though Queens of the Stone Age have gained this status through their heavy, stoner rock sound, Homme’s early influences were much softer. For Entertainment Weekly, he cited soft country singer-songwriter Kenny Rogers as the artist who made him want to play music. He recalls listening to Rogers at a young age, picking out his 1983 duet with Dolly Parton, ‘Islands in the Stream’, in particular.
The track, which was originally written by the Bee Gees, forms a declaration of love between Rogers and Parton. Taking on the voices of two lovers, they harmonise, “And we rely on each other, aha, from one lover to another, aha”. The sweet lyrics are accompanied by soft rock instrumentals, melodic and mushy.
Widely successful at the time of release, ‘Islands of the Stream’ beat ‘Total Eclipse of the Heart’ by Bonnie Tyler for the number one spot on the Billboard chart. Some 40 years later, its cultural relevance persists primarily as a karaoke song – from Bryn and Nessa’s cover on Gavin and Stacey to a feature in The Good Doctor.
It’s surprising that the iconic rock guitarist and vocalist names the gooey, commercial love song as one of his early influences. The music Homme grew up to make, and the music that would ultimately make him a household name in alt-rock, couldn’t be more dissimilar.
Homme admits: “I knew when I heard Charged G.B.H. or Black Flag that [punk rock] was something I could play too – it made it possible for me. And then hearing the storytelling of Johnny Cash, that’s almost a book on tape with music behind it. Later, I graduated into Waylon [Jennings] and Willie [Nelson], but it started with Kenny Rogers’ [‘Islands in the Stream’].”
Rogers and Parton’s soft rock hit ‘Islands in the Stream’ may not have retained its influence on Homme, but it served as an accessible entryway into music for the frontman, paving the way for him to discover the heavier sound he would later cultivate in his own work.
