The classic album Josh Homme hated making: “Not good for me”
There are specific musicians whose greatness is inextricably linked with the band they’re in. Take a Pete Townshend or maybe a Jimmy Page, for example. But then there are some names whose legacy is more mercurial, not for the band they were in but for their everlasting presence in the music scene. Of this, there is perhaps no better example than that of Josh Homme.
His powerful guitar playing has featured in several bands: Kyuss, Them Crooked Vultures and perhaps most famously, Queens of the Stone Age. But while the latter band has done the most in cementing his legacy, his name has always floated above the realms of their releases.
He’s become the prince of Joshua Tree, inviting bands searching for a new sound to the expanse of his desert studio where he helps them develop it into something more. In turn, he’s built the sort of career that results in the utterance of his name being associated with a style and sound.
Ultimately, that’s what has made him the first name on the team sheet for the formation of any super group. Be it with John Paul Jones and Dave Grohl in Them Crooked Vultures or alongside Iggy Pop for his 2016 resurgence, Homme’s name is on the tip of any lip looking to achieve musical greatness.
So surely, the pre-existing members of Queens of the Stone Age are rubbing their hands together, knowing they share the stage with one of the greats. Well, perhaps therein lies the problem, for there seems to be a predisposed notion that the band is nothing more than Josh Homme and his tag-along band of merrymen.
It was something Homme himself wrestled with, ensuring The Desert Sessions and Lullabies to Paralyze were recorded in a collaborative fashion so as to get out of his own way. But that wasn’t always the case, and on the album many fans would consider their opus, Homme carried the weight of the entire band on his back.
“Songs for the Deaf I made more or less by myself, and that experience was not good for me because it was like being left alone. We worked with an outsider on Songs for the Deaf, and the first thing he said was, ‘I wanna study your vibe and then I can perfect it’. And I was like… fuck! So after he was fired, it was all about trying to get back to where we were at originally.”
He undoubtedly has a vision, and it’s one he steadfastly believes in when creating records, but to think an artist who’s made a career from opening the doors of his studio to musicians world over is immune to collaboration is simply a reductive take.
He explained, “I think people have a perception that I steer the ship like a Nazi general, and that that is the most important role. But it’s not”.
It’s the usual complex we like to place on the frontman, and particularly in the case of Homme, who has consistently proven himself to be a multifaceted artist, but Queens of the Stone age are a legendary band for the very fact that they are a band. They just happen to have one of music’s greatest artists at the front of stage.
