American musician (born 1973)
Joshua Michael Homme ( ; born May 17, 1973) is an American musician, singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, and record producer. He is best known as the founder and only continuous member of the rock band Queens of the Stone Age, which he formed in 1996. Homme is the band's primary songwriter and mainly sings lead vocals and plays guitar. He also plays drums in the rock band Eagles of Death Metal, which he co-founded in 1998.
Homme began his career as the co-founder and guitarist of the rock band Kyuss, with whom he performed from 1987 to 1995. He then served as a touring guitarist for the rock band Screaming Trees from 1996 to 1998, leaving to start Queens of the Stone Age. He has also overseen a musical improv project with other musicians (mostly from the Palm Desert Scene) known as The Desert Sessions since 1997. He formed the supergroup Them Crooked Vultures alongside Dave Grohl and John Paul Jones in 2009, releasing their eponymous debut album later that year. In 2016, he produced, co-wrote, and performed on the Iggy Pop album "Post Pop Depression". He has also been involved with acts such as Royal Blood, Foo Fighters, Run the Jewels, and Arctic Monkeys.
Early life.
Joshua Michael Homme was born in Palm Springs, California, on May 17, 1973. He grew up in a well-known family in and around Palm Desert, California; his paternal grandfather, Clancy "Cap" Homme, moved to the area from North Dakota and was an early settler of the Valley. Cap has a private street named after him in Rancho Mirage, marking the original road to the Homme ranch, as well as a park named after him in an exclusive enclave of the Valley. The Homme surname is believed to be Norwegian. Homme moved with his family on a regular basis due to his father's work, residing in many towns around the Valley. He later discussed having to "create [his] own fun" as a child growing up in the desert, stating that he did not start playing music to "get girls or make money" and that he assumed he would grow up to be a contractor like his father.
Homme also has ties in Idaho and has talked about his formative experiences there, such as seeing Carl Perkins perform at the Sandpoint Music Festival and the first time purchasing his own electric guitar (an Ovation Ultra GP) in a Sandpoint music store. He began playing guitar at the age of nine, after his parents denied his wishes for a drum kit. He took guitar lessons for the next few years but his teacher mostly focused on polka, so he supposedly did not learn of a barre chord or a pick until his third year of lessons, lending to his unique playing style. He joined his first band, Autocracy, in 1985 at the age of 12. Despite his musical success, he continued to work on his grandfather's farm until releasing the first Queens of the Stone Age album at the age of 25, because he "didn't want to lose [his] grip on reality".
Career.
Kyuss (1987–1995).
In 1987, when he was 14 years old, Homme formed a punk rock-influenced heavy metal band in Palm Desert High School called Katzenjammer with schoolmates John Garcia, Brant Bjork, Nick Oliveri and Chris Cockrell. Homme was the band's guitarist. After changing their name a few times, first to Sons of Kyuss (they released an EP of the same name), they finally shortened it to Kyuss. The band garnered a cult following by the early 1990s, often driving for hours to isolated locations in the desert and plugging into generators to perform. These events, known as "generator parties", became urban legend among rock subculture. The band became both famous for their heavy, down tuned, groove oriented music, and infamous for their backstage fights with local LA bands when they traveled into town to play gigs. This soon brought the attention of Chris Goss, who became the band's mentor, helping the band sign to a label and eventually producing them exclusively in an effort to preserve their sound. Due to Homme being younger than 18 at the time of the band's signing, his parents signed the contract on his behalf. Kyuss released four albums ("Wretch", "Blues for the Red Sun", "Welcome to Sky Valley", and "...And the Circus Leaves Town"), of which the final three Goss-produced efforts are often cited as cornerstones to the development of the stoner rock genre in the 1990s.
Queens of the Stone Age (1996–present).
When Kyuss split up in 1995, Homme moved to Seattle, Washington, briefly abandoning his desire for a music career and attending the University of Washington to study business. During this time, he fell back in with old musician friends such as Ben Shepherd and Mike Johnson, and eventually agreed to join the Screaming Trees as a rhythm guitarist on the summer Lollapalooza tour in 1996, a replacement for Johnson, and that continued into the following year. Homme and vocalist Mark Lanegan became close friends during this time but, disliking the rest of the band's continual disharmony, began considering forming his own band. He founded Gamma Ray, a group more centered on his unique style and tastes, in 1996. After a cease and desist from a band of the same name, this band became Queens of the Stone Age.
Homme lived in Amsterdam for several months in 1996, which set forth events that would help kickstart the band. Roadrunner Records approached Homme to contribute to the label's compilation "Burn One Up! Music for Stoners", which led to the first Queens of the Stone Age song, "18 A.D.", written with Dave Catching featuring Catching and members of Dutch stoner rock band Beaver on bass and drums. Homme also produced a song by Beaver for the compilation.
The band's first release under the new name was the "Kyuss/Queens of the Stone Age" compilation EP, featuring tracks from both Kyuss and songs recorded from the "Gamma Ray" EP sessions from 1996, released in late 1997. Queens of the Stone Age released their eponymous debut album in 1998. Initially, the band consisted of various friends of Homme's from the Seattle area. Homme had asked a number of singers, including Lanegan, to perform as lead vocalist for Queens of the Stone Age, but by the time of recording the band's debut album, he had moved back to Palm Desert and the band was pared down to just Homme and ex-Kyuss drummer Alfredo Hernandez. Homme was left to cover every other instrument and ended up singing for the first time in his career. Shortly after recording, Homme and Hernandez were joined by bassist and vocalist Nick Oliveri and guitarist, keyboardist, and lapsteel player Dave Catching, the band was now composed entirely of ex-Kyuss members and roadies.
Following their debut album, by which time Hernandez left the group, Queens of the Stone Age released the next album, "Rated R", during which the band used a wider range of instruments to achieve a more relaxed, spacious and psychedelic sound. Though it differed from the band's debut, "Rated R" became Queens of the Stone Age's first mainstream hit. The next release, 2002's "Songs for the Deaf", however, would gain even more buzz from the music community and fans alike. In "Songs for the Deaf", Homme continued his filtering of stoner rock and hard rock. The album centers on Homme's memories of uncomfortable rides through the California desert, where he had performed in his days with Kyuss, and where there was little to do but listen to Spanish radio stations.
During this time, Homme had a falling out with Oliveri. Following the release of "Songs for the Deaf", their relationship deteriorated until Homme fired Oliveri from the band in 2004. Homme reportedly strongly considered breaking up the band at this point.
Homme began writing the band's next album, "Lullabies to Paralyze", named after a lyric from the "Songs for the Deaf" hidden track "Mosquito Song". "Lullabies to Paralyze", created with "Songs for the Deaf" touring recruits Troy Van Leeuwen and Joey Castillo and collaborators and future recruits Alain Johannes and Natasha Shneider of Eleven, was a critical and commercial success, debuting at number five on the "Billboard" 200, QOTSA's best charting album on the "Billboard" 200 to date.
Queens of the Stone Age's fifth album, "Era Vulgaris", was released in early June 2007 and received generally positive reviews from critics. Following the album's touring cycle, the band took a break to focus on individual projects, during which Homme continued to produce and create more records outside the band. This break would unintentionally turn into a six-year gap between albums.
In 2010, following his work with rock supergroup Them Crooked Vultures, Homme began performing more live shows with QOTSA. Following a deluxe reissue of "Rated R", a 2011 re-release of their debut album and corresponding tour followed, featuring the album played front to back in the style in which it was recorded. This was the first time many of the songs had been performed live since the album's original release.
On June 4, 2013, after a tumultuous writing and recording process, Queens of the Stone Age released their sixth album, "...Like Clockwork", receiving high praise from critics, as well as topping the Billboard 200 charts. "...Like Clockwork" highlights Homme's collaborative recording process and features guests such as Elton John, Dave Grohl, Alex Turner, Jake Shears, Trent Reznor, Mark Lanegan, Nick Oliveri and Brody Dalle.
Their seventh album, "Villains", was released in August 2017. The album contains no collaborations other than being produced by Mark Ronson, marking the first time the band has released an album with no featured guests on it.
In 2018, the band was featured on "Revamp", a cover album containing various renditions of Elton John songs, on which they performed "Goodbye Yellow Brick Road".
The band's eighth album, "In Times New Roman...", was released in June 2023.
The Desert Sessions (1997–present).
Homme founded The Desert Sessions in 1997 at the Rancho De La Luna in Joshua Tree, California, describing it as a musical collective series "that cannot be defined". He stated, "At Desert Sessions, you play for the sake of music. That's why it's good for musicians. If someday that's not enough anymore, or that's not the reason behind you doing it – that's not your "raison d'être" – then a quick reminder like Desert Sessions can do so much for you, it's amazing. It's easy to forget that this all starts from playing in your garage and loving it."
The recordings are done "on the spot" in a matter of hours, and the line-up constantly changes, with new contributors being added for each new recording. Artists such as PJ Harvey, Twiggy Ramirez, Dave Catching, Nick Oliveri, Mark Lanegan, Ben Shepherd, John McBain, Josh Freese, Chris Goss, Alain Johannes, Dean Ween, and many others from the Palm Desert Scene have contributed to The Desert Sessions recordings.
After 11 years of inactivity, Homme revealed in October 2014 that he would start working on more Desert Sessions material the following year. However, things remained silent until May 2019, when Homme posted an image on Instagram with the hashtags "#Desert, #Sessions, #11, #12". In September, it was announced that "Desert Sessions Volumes 11 &amp; 12" will be released on October 25, 2019.
Eagles of Death Metal (1998–present).
In 1998, Homme formed Eagles of Death Metal with friend Jesse Hughes as a joke band in the context of the Desert Sessions. Recordings from the band first appeared on "Volumes 3 &amp; 4", released that year. Over the next few years, Hughes settled into family life while Homme focused on Queens of the Stone Age. However, after Hughes' separation from his wife in 2003 and a spurt in creativity that resulted in dozens of songs, Homme convinced Hughes to pursue a full-time music career. Hughes writes, sings, and plays rhythm guitar, while Homme produces, arranges, and plays drums, bass, and various other instruments. So far, the band has released four albums: "Peace, Love, Death Metal" in 2004, "Death by Sexy" in 2006, "Heart On" in 2008, and most recently "Zipper Down" in 2015. Due to his commitments with Queens of the Stone Age and other projects, Homme does not regularly tour with Eagles of Death Metal, but occasionally makes appearances during live performances. In an October 2008 interview, he re-affirmed his commitment to the band saying, "This isn't a side project