Josh Homme has revealed he was diagnosed with cancer in 2022 and underwent surgery to remove it. The Queens Of The Stone Age frontman shared his diagnosis in a recent interview with Revolver, and said that he expected to make a full recovery
Homme did not share many details, other than to say that the procedure was successful and that he was still healing. He has performed twice with Queens Of The Stone Age this year, with the band’s much-anticipated new album, In Times New Roman… scheduled for release this Friday through Matador.
“I never say it can't get any worse,” he said. “I never say that, and I wouldn't advise it. But I do say it can get better. Cancer is just the cherry on top of an interesting time period, you know? I’m extremely thankful that I’ll get through this, and I’ll look back at this as something that’s fucked up – but will have made me better. I’m cool with that. There's a lot of stuff I want to do. And there’s a lot of people I want to do that with.”
The interview is one of the few times we have heard from Homme in recent years, in which he has been making headlines for his acrimonious divorce from Brody Dalle. Homme told Revolver he “felt chained to the floor for the last three years”, and that he didn’t necessarily want to make a record but it seemed as good a course of therapy as any.
In Times New Roman… is QOTSA’s first since 2017’s Villains. It was recorded in California at Homme’s own Pink Duck Studios, in Burbank, and down by the coast in Malibu at Rick Rubin’s Shangri-La Studios. The band handled the production themselves, with Mark Rankin returning to mix the record.
Earlier today, QOTSA debuted new track, Carnavoyeur – a louche groover with a late-night after hours feel and with Michael Shuman’s bass guitar all distorted and gnarly through what sounds like it could be a Mu-Tron III or similar. There is a lot of cool electric guitar sounds on the track, too.
Carnavoyeur is the second song to be shared ahead of the album’s release. Emotion Sickness shambled out the gate with a classic QOTSA rhythm, rock you can dance to, with psychedelic big sky moments. If Emotion Sickness is a good-times open-air jam, Carnavoyeur sounds like it might be foreshadowing some of the darkness we’ll find on the new album.
In the same interview, drummer Jon Theodore said some of these tracks were captured in the first or second take, or when the tape was rolling and they kept on playing. “It was really liberating and as an experience it brought us closer together,” he said. “There was real joy, there was passion, there was fire.”
In Times New Roman…. is available to preorder and is out Friday 16 June through Matador. You can read more from Homme at Revolver.
