In the summer of 1996, as they prepared to join Metallica, Soundgarden, Ramones and Rancid on the Lollapalooza tour, Screaming Trees recruited a new touring guitarist, ex-Kyuss riff lord (and future Queens Of The Stone Age leader) Josh Homme. Though he had no part in this decision, the band's frontman Mark Lanegan took to Homme immediately.
"He impressed me right off the bat," Lanegan recalled in his astonishingly candid 2020 memoir Sing Backwards And Weep. "Not only was he a far superior guitarist to [Gary] Lee [Conner], he was highly intelligent, and even at his young age, already a seasoned veteran... as well as a natural comedian with a hilarious, quick sense of humour."
"I thanked God I finally had someone to relate to and confide in."
