| Josh Homme | |
|---|---|
Homme with Queens of the Stone Age at the Eurockéennes de Belfort 2011 |
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| Background information | |
| Birth name | Joshua Michael Homme III |
| Born | May 17, 1973 |
| Genres | Desert rock, alternative rock, alternative metal, stoner rock, heavy metal, hard rock, neo-psychedelia, blues rock, experimental rock. |
| Occupations | Musician, songwriter, producer |
| Instruments | Vocals, guitar, bass, piano, keyboards, drums, synthesizers, lap steel, pedal steel, banjo, organ, percussion |
| Years active | 1988–present |
| Labels | Dali, Elektra, Roadrunner, Bongload, Loosegroove, Rekords, Interscope, Southern Lord |
| Associated acts | Kyuss, Queens of the Stone Age, Eagles of Death Metal, Mondo Generator, The Desert Sessions, Screaming Trees, Mastodon, Masters of Reality, Fififf Teeners, Them Crooked Vultures, Foo Fighters, Biffy Clyro, Arctic Monkeys, U.N.K.L.E, Goon Moon, Mark Lanegan Band, Beaver, Millionaire |
| Website | www.qotsa.com |
| Notable instruments | |
| Ovation Ultra GP Maton BB1200 Motor Ave Bel Aire Epiphone Dot |
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Joshua Michael Homme (born May 17, 1973)[1] is an American rock musician, and record producer. He was the guitarist and a founding member of the stoner metal band Kyuss, as well as the founding and only continuous member of the hard rock band Queens of the Stone Age (QOTSA), in which he sings, plays guitar, and serves as the band's primary songwriter. He co-founded and occasionally performs with Eagles of Death Metal as its drummer, and continues to produce and release a musical improv series with other musicians, mostly from the Palm Desert scene, known as The Desert Sessions. In 2009, he appeared in a new project called Them Crooked Vultures with Dave Grohl and John Paul Jones. Them Crooked Vultures released their debut album in 2009. In 2010, Homme concentrated his efforts on Them Crooked Vultures over all other projects.
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Homme was born in Joshua Tree, California and grew up in Palm Desert. He began playing guitar at age 9 after his parents denied his wishes for a drumset. He joined his first band, Autocracy, at the age of 12.
At age 15 in 1988, Homme formed a heavy metal band with school mates John Garcia and Brant Bjork in Palm Desert called Sons of Kyuss (originally known as Katzenjammer, and then as Sons of Kyuss, which was then shortened to Kyuss after the release of the self-titled EP). Homme was the band's lead guitarist. The band would become a cult phenomenon by the early nineties. The band often drove for hours out to isolated locations in the desert and plugged into generators to perform, and these events, known as "generator parties" became urban legend among rock subculture.[2] As of November 2010, Kyuss is back together (as Kyuss Lives!), but Homme is not part of the reunion.[3]
When Kyuss split up in 1995, Homme joined the Screaming Trees as a rhythm guitarist,[4] touring but not recording with the band. He and vocalist Mark Lanegan became close friends during this time. Disliking the band's continual disharmony and lack of progression Homme left the group after less than a year. He founded Gamma Ray,[5] a group more centered to his unique style and tastes, which later became Queens of the Stone Age in 1997. Queens of the Stone Age released their eponymous debut album in 1998. Originally, he had asked a number of singers, including Lanegan, to perform as lead vocalist for Queens of the Stone Age, but ended up singing lead for the first time in his career.
Following their debut, the band released several singles and EPs. With the next album, Rated R, the band used a wider range of instruments to achieve a more relaxed, spacious and psychedelic sound.[6] Despite differences 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.[7] In Songs for the Deaf, Homme continued his filtering of stoner metal and hard rock. The album centers around Homme's memories of uncomfortable rides through the California desert, where he had performed in his days with Kyuss, and where there was little else to do but listen to Spanish radio stations.[8]
During this time, Homme had a falling out with bassist and friend Nick Oliveri. Following the release of Songs for the Deaf, their relationship deteriorated until Homme fired Oliveri from the band in 2004.[9] Homme began writing their next album, Lullabies to Paralyze, named after a lyric from the Deaf hidden track "Mosquito Song". Lullabies to Paralyze upon release would debut at number 5 on the Billboard 200 and is QOTSAs 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.[10][11][12]
In 2010, following on from his work with rock supergroup Them Crooked Vultures, Homme confirmed he would be back into live shows with the band. A re release of their debut album has been confirmed as well as a tour to follow it and the band have also been booked to play many late Summer 2010 festivals; the highlight being England's Reading and Leeds festivals which Homme commented on saying: "we have nothing to promote so we're just gunna go out and play a hardcore rock show" the band sub headline to Guns N' Roses at these two shows despite Homme and Axl Rose's very public dislike for one another.
Homme founded The Desert Sessions in 1997 as a musical collective series "that cannot be defined", at the Rancho De La Luna in Joshua Tree. The recordings are done "on the spot", in matters of hours and the line-up is constantly changing with new contributors being added for each new recording. Artists such as Brant Bjork, 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 recorded with The Desert Sessions.
| “ | 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. - Josh Homme | ” |
So far, ten volumes of from The Desert Sessions have been released. Homme also stated in a September issue of NME that he would record more material with The Desert Sessions.
In 1998 Josh formed Eagles of Death Metal with friend Jesse Hughes. Recordings from this project first appeared on Homme's The Desert Sessions Volumes 3 & 4, released that year. Over the next few years, Homme became distracted from EoDM due to the success of Queens of the Stone Age. However, in an October 2008 interview, he re-affirmed his commitment to the band saying, "This isn't a side project for me. I'm in two bands. I have musical schizophrenia, and this is one of those personalities.[13]
So far the band has released three albums: Peace, Love, Death Metal in 2004, Death by Sexy in 2006 and most recently Heart On in 2008. Due to his commitments with QOTSA Homme does not regularly tour with the band, but occasionally makes appearances during live performances.
In July 2009, it was revealed that Homme, Dave Grohl and John Paul Jones were recording together for a musical project named Them Crooked Vultures.[14][15] The trio performed their first show together on August 9, 2009 in Chicago at The Metro to a crowd of approximately 1,100 ticketholders. The band has been steadily touring with live rhythm guitarist/auxiliary man Alain Johannes.[16] Them Crooked Vultures was released by Interscope Records in the United States on November 17, and Sony Music internationally.[17] They performed on Saturday Night Live as a musical guest on February 6, 2010, and at Austin City Limits on October 2, 2009.
Other acts with which Homme has collaborated include: Mondo Generator, Foo Fighters, PJ Harvey, Fatso Jetson, Mark Lanegan Band, Trent Reznor, Masters of Reality, Millionaire, Wellwater Conspiracy, U.N.K.L.E., Primal Scream, Melissa Auf der Maur, Paz Lenchantin, A Perfect Circle, Death from Above 1979, Earthlings?, Mastodon, Peaches, The Strokes, Local H, Biffy Clyro and Arctic Monkeys. He also collaborated with Liam Howlett from The Prodigy for a remix of The Prodigy track Take Me To The Hospital in August 2009 called Take Me To The Hospital (Josh Homme and Liam H.'s wreckage remix).
Homme contributed (along with Nick Oliveri and Brad Wilk) to the soundtrack for the 2002 film "The Dangerous Lives of Altar Boys".[18][19]
Homme was featured on Killer Queen: A Tribute to Queen in the song "Stone Cold Crazy", on Blood Mountain by Mastodon, in the song "Colony of Birchmen", and on Impeach My Bush by Peaches in the song "Give 'Er".
Homme, along with friend and Kyuss/QOTSA contributor/producer Chris Goss, performed as "The 5:15ers" at the inaugural ArthurBall (an offshoot of the ArthurFest festival) in Los Angeles on January 26, 2006.[20] The two were credited as "The Fififf Teeners" when they co-produced QOTSA's second album, Rated R, and their latest disc, Era Vulgaris.
He also produced most of the Arctic Monkeys album Humbug [21] as well as providing backing vocals to All My Own Stunts on their album Suck It and See.
In June 2010 Homme appeared on the Comedy Central series Tosh.0 to do an unplugged duet version of the hit viral song What What (In the Butt) with Internet celebrity Samwell. He is also provided the theme song to Aqua Unit Patrol Squad 1, the show formerly known as Aqua Teen Hunger Force.[22]
In August 2011 Homme appeared on an episode of Anthony Bourdain's No Reservations on the Travel Channel.
Homme and his wife, Spinnerette frontwoman Brody Dalle, have a daughter named Camille Harley Joan Homme, born on January 17, 2006, and a son, Orrin Ryder Homme, born August 12, 2011. The couple resides in Palm Springs.
Homme collects motorcycles and rides a rare, post-war Falcon Motorcycle.[23] In a radio interview, Homme and Nick Oliveri agreed to give the LAPD permission to use the song "Feel Good Hit of the Summer" in anti-drunk driving films in return for a reduced sentence, following the Blag Dahlia incident.[24]
He has 17 tattoos. The most commonly seen ones are the ones on his knuckles—they are his grandparents' nicknames with a heart (Cam (short for Camille) on the left, and Cap on the right). His inner right arm has a straight-edge razor and the words 'Born to Win', with his nickname 'Baby Duck' underneath. He also has his daughter's name, Camille, tattooed over his heart.[25][26] After his son was born he added a heart and his son's initials ORH below his knuckles and the tatoo on his right hand. [27]
In a 2011 interview with Anthony Bourdain, celebrity Chef and host of the television program, "Anthony Bourdain | No Reservations," Homme admits that as a teenager raised in the desert, "...you have to create your own fun." He candidly speaks about being raised in the desert. Homme also admits that he never started playing music to "get girls, or make money" and that he assumed he would grow up to be "a good Contractor, like my dad." The episode originally aired August 8, 2011 on The Travel Channel, titled "US Desert".[28]
In 2011, Homme was named the 14th best guitarist of the last 30 years by BBC-6Music. [29]
Homme's surname is of Norwegian origin, and is believed to come from the town Valle, Norway. On several occasions (the BBC radio documentary "Time For Heroes: The Pixies" and on his secret "fan letter" on the final track of Mastodon's album Blood Mountain), he pronounced it as rhyming with "mommy" and again pronounced it the same during an interview with NME.[30] When Homme was interviewed in 2005, he again pronounced his surname as rhyming with "mommy". [31] According to the most commonly used Norwegian variants, the common pronunciation would be [hummə] which rhymes with puma. Homme adopted the pseudonym "Carlo Von Sexron" to credit his playing of bass, keyboard, piano, and drums on such albums as The Desert Sessions Volumes 3 & 4, and Peace, Love, Death Metal from Eagles of Death Metal.[32]
Homme is also known as "(King) Baby Duck" to Dalle and the members of Eagles of Death Metal.[33] He is also referred to as "J.Ho.", "Joe's Hoe" and "The Ginger Elvis".[34]
In 2004, Homme was arrested for assaulting Dwarves frontman Blag Dahlia and Karl Doyle, at an L.A. club. Upon pleading no contest, Homme was ordered to remain at least 100 yards (91.44 meters) away from Dahlia and the club, was sentenced to 3 years probation with community service, and was forced to enter a rehab program for 60 days.[35]
At the 2008 Norwegian Wood festival in Oslo, Norway, Josh Homme drew criticism for his reaction to an audience member who had thrown a bottle at him during the song "3's and 7's".[36][37] Homme called the audience member a "chicken-shit fucking faggot" and "a twelve year old dickless fucking turd." The incident drew accusations of homophobia from several blogs, which were then picked up by the mainstream media.[38][39] Homme replied with a lengthy public letter denying all accusations of homophobia, and blamed the tirade on a high fever.[40][41]
"I don’t [share secrets] only because my sound is important to me and I’ve spent a lot of years just working it over with little tricks here and there, I almost feel like if you reveal too much of that you give away something that’s near and dear to you. It’s like you put it up on the altar and say, ‘Here, everyone take a slice"
In an interview about guitars in 2008, Homme claimed to own an amount of guitars close to 35, adding that only 3 of them were "really good". He also declared that he purposely did not have a Fender Stratocaster or a Gibson Les Paul, but that he's always in search of intriguing, unique guitars, which are not always generally accepted as "quality" guitars, but are nevertheless great to use. He said that he tends to buy "weird, Japanese" guitars, or guitars that are already "scarred" and thus have a story.[43]
Homme owns three 1984 Ovation GPs[44] and often downtunes his guitar to C standard. He is very evasive about his guitar equipment, choosing to either change the subject or even lie when asked about his setup in interviews.[45]
During the tours up until Lullabies to Paralyze, Homme mainly relied on his Gibson Marauder, his Epiphone Dot, Maton M503 and M524 along with his Ovation GPs and Ovation VXT. For the Lullabies to Paralyze and Era Vulgaris recording sessions and tours, Homme retired his GPs, and almost exclusively plays semihollow guitars. He is also listed as a user of Seymour Duncan's SH-11, SHR-1b and SH-1 guitar pickups.[47]
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During the early days of QOTSA much of his late setup from Kyuss was still being used, later Homme turned more towards Ampeg amplifers and cabinets.[46] Throughout his career Homme has experimented a lot with different combinations of amplifiers, cabinets and settings, here is a list off some of the equipment he has been known to have used.[46][57][58]
In addition to guitar, Homme frequently plays a Yamaha SA-70 semihollow body bass on songs such as on "Burn the Witch" and "Long Slow Goodbye," as well as every track on QOTSA's debut album except for "Give the Mule What He Wants" as well as piano and keyboard under the pseudonym "Carlo Von Sexron". Homme also plays the drums with Eagles of Death Metal, on The Desert Sessions as well as on some QOTSA tracks. He has also occasionally played lap steel during the Desert Sessions.
| Band or artist | Album | Release date | Credits |
|---|---|---|---|
| Kyuss | Sons of Kyuss | 1990-04-19 | Guitars |
| Kyuss | Wretch | 1991-09-23 | Guitars |
| Kyuss | Blues for the Red Sun | 1992-06-30 | Guitars and co-producer |
| Kyuss | Welcome to Sky Valley | 1994-06-28 | Guitars and co-producer |
| Kyuss | …And the Circus Leaves Town | 1995-07-11 | Guitars and co-producer |
| The Desert Sessions | Volumes 1 & 2 | 1998-02-24 | Vocals, guitar, keyboard, drums, and bass |
| Queens of the Stone Age | Queens of the Stone Age | 1998-09-22 | Vocals and guitar, bass, keyboard and piano. |
| The Desert Sessions | Volumes 3 & 4 | 1998-10-27 | |
| The Desert Sessions | Volumes 5 & 6 | 1999-09-14 | |
| Queens of the Stone Age | Rated R | 2000-06-06 | Vocals, guitar, percussion, drums, piano, backing vocals, mixing, concept and co-producer. |
| Kyuss | Muchas Gracias: The Best of Kyuss | 2000-11-28 | Guitars and co-producer |
| The Desert Sessions | Volumes 7 & 8 | 2001-10-16 | |
| Queens of the Stone Age | Songs for the Deaf | 2002-08-27 | Vocals, guitars and co-producer. |
| The Desert Sessions | Volumes 9 & 10 | 2003-09-23 | Vocals, guitar, bass, drums, percussion. |
| Eagles of Death Metal | Peace, Love, Death Metal | 2004-03-23 | Drums, percussion, bass and producer. |
| Queens of the Stone Age | Lullabies to Paralyze | 2005-03-22 | Vocals, guitar, bass, piano, drums, percussion and co-producer. |
| Eagles of Death Metal | Death by Sexy | 2006-04-11 | Drums, backup vocals, keyboards, bass, guitar and producer. |
| Queens of the Stone Age | Era Vulgaris | 2007-06-12 | Vocals, guitar, percussion, bass guitar, lap steel guitar, piano, organ, percussion ball and co-producer. |
| Eagles of Death Metal | Heart On | 2008-10-28 | Drums, guitars, bass, percussion, vocals and producer. |
| Them Crooked Vultures | Them Crooked Vultures | 2009-11-17 | Vocals, guitar, organ, lap steel, production |
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