Outlaw chic has always been central to Queens Of The Stone Age lore. With their roots in the lawless, feral, boundary-free Palm Desert generator party scene in which Kyuss cut their teeth, Josh Homme’s band have always presented themselves with a Last Gang In Town outlaw swagger. Citing mavericks such as Iggy Pop, Can, Johnny Cash, Hank Williams, David Bowie, Lemmy and Tom Waits as influences, from the outset 'The Ginger Elvis' positioned his crew to the left of hard rock orthodoxy, and on anthems such as Feel Good Hit Off The Summer, The Lost Art Of Keeping A Secret and breakthrough hits No One Knows and Go With The Flow the notion of QOTSA operating outside ‘straight’ society was paramount.
After Dave Grohl sat in with the group for a chunk of the Songs For The Deaf cycle, he enthused about the experience to this writer, saying, “If you can say that you were a member of Queens Of The Stone Age that’s like wearing a patch on your chest that says ‘I Am A Badass’ for the rest of your life, because the only people that get to play in Queens Of The Stone Age are badass motherfuckers, and that’s the truth.”
Crucially too though, there was always a sense of honour, honesty and integrity, however twisted, at the unit’s core: having launched his band with a mission statement to make music “heavy enough for the boys and sweet enough for the girls”, Homme cast out his life-long friend Nick Oliver from the fold in 2004 after rumours that the bassist had been physically abusive to his-then girlfriend. For the longest time then, Queens' leader has been portrayed as, to quote NME in June 2017, “a total fucking don.”
And then in December 2017, the 6 foot 5 inch tall musician kicked photographer Chelsea Lauren in the face during his band’s set at the KROQ Acoustic Christmas concert, a shocking display of macho aggression which stunned all who observed it. “I was a dick,” Homme later acknowledged in the apology video which inevitably followed. “I want to be a good man, but I think last night I definitely failed at that… I’m gonna have to figure out some stuff, I think, ’cause rock & roll is a wonderful thing. It’s supposed to save and help people, not mess them up.”
