October, 2017 RollingStoneAus.com | Rolling Stone | 71A part of shaking things up came from
his six-year-old son Ryder turning him on
to Mark Ronson’s “Uptown Funk”. Pre-
viously his 11-year-old daughter Camille
went through a big Adele phase, which
resulted in Homme using engineer Mark
Rankin to work on ...Like Clockwork. His
third child, Wolf, is only one year old, so
his musical tastes are yet to have an im-
pact on Homme’s production choices.
“People ask me, ‘Why Ronson?’ And I
say, ‘Exactly.’ He was a fan. He’s a good
communicator. He immerses himself in
your world, so his ideas are not arbitrary
but within the boundaries of who you are.
That, to me, is a good producer. That’s how
you become transparent and helpful at the
same time. Also he’s very beat-centric and
we’re a very beat-centric band.
“With this album I knew we were going
to reinvent ourselves in our way. I knew we
were going to take some of what we were,
the examples of the idea of us, put themon a bridge, then light the bridge on fire,
because it’s important to sacrifi ce the ex-
amples of who you are to preserve the idea
of who you are.”I
n the past, homme has been
at pains to point out that Queens
of the Stone Age deliberately
work outside of what is happen-
ing in the world at large. They’re
meant to be an escape, a cele-
bration, a catharsis. Early on, that often
played out as a kind of macho hedonism.
But Homme has been opening up on the
last few albums. In particular, “Fortress”
and “Villains Of Circumstance” from the
latest record exhibit a new vulnerability,
the former about being there for someone
going through dark times, the latter about
love conquering distance and separation.
One has to wonder if the events on the
night of November 13th, 2015, have some-
thing to do with it. That was when EaglesOf Death Metal played the Bataclan the-
atre in Paris. Frontman Jesse Hughes
has been Homme’s best buddy since they
were in high school together and Homme
stood up for him when he was being bul-
lied. In 2006, when Hughes had a serious
drug addiction, Homme not only drove
his friend to rehab, but paid for the treat-
ment. Homme still records with the band
and joins them onstage whenever Queens’
commitments allow. In fact, he was meant
to be there that night, but at the last min-
ute had to cancel.
At 9:40pm, three terrorists with as-
sault rifl es entered the theatre and started
opening fi re. The massacre lasted for 20
minutes and 89 people were killed, includ-
ing the band’s merchandise manager, Nick
Alexander.
“I really don’t like to talk about that,”
says Homme, going quiet for the fi rst
time in the interview.
I tell him that I understand, and that’s
fi ne.
But before we move on, he decides
that he does want to talk a little about
it after all, just to give a glimpse of what
personal damage that night wrought.
And what he has to say is both devastat-
ing and defi ant.
“What I can say is that there’s a group
of girls that has gone to every Queens
show for 15 years and every Eagles show
and all of them are gone now.”
He pauses for a moment.
“There’s so much that you’ll never
know about that night, and good for you.
I would be glad to be in that spot.
“I can tell you one thing. It’s going to
take a lot more than that to get me to not
be who I am. I know what cowards would
do, because they always do the cheap shit.
It’s not going to stop us. We’re going to
go on tour. We’re going to go everywhere.
We’re united.”
Showtime is approaching. He shakes
hands, gets to his feet, picks up his walk-
ing stick and limps out of the room. An
hour later, the Hordern Pavilion erupts
as the band launch into “Turnin’ On the
Screw”. Homme does not look like a man
who can’t walk unaided. He looks like a
rock star.
Eighteen songs later, the set comes to
an end with the pile-driving, sludge-metal
monster “A Song For the Dead”.
“Life’s the study of dying, how to do it
right,” Homme howls.
The song was written for Queens of the
Stone Age’s third album, Songs For the
Deaf, eight years before Josh Homme’s
heart stopped on an operating table and
13 years before terrorists opened fi re on
fans and friends.
Those words must weigh even more
heavily tonight than they did back then.
Then again, as Homme would say, a little
GETTY IMAGES pain is guaranteed, but that’s fi ne.
The Man in Black
(1) Homme with Queens of the
Stone Age. (2) In the studio
working on Villains with
producer Mark Ronson. (3)
Onstage with Queens in
Sydney in July.123