When you expect anything from music, you expect too much.
— Josh Homme
Making people uncomfortable is one of my hobbies. I'm always hoping that half the people get the joke and the other half are the joke.
Records don't have to be perfect. Everyone doesn't have to move left when everyone else moves left. I love hearing the mistakes.
The first time Kyuss was about to get signed, they're like, 'We'd like to sign you!' and we just said, 'No! Forget it!' because we thought people were always trying to invade everything.
By the time you get to your sixth record, some of the benefits of being in a band are grander than ever, but some of the obstacles are just massive. You deal with these lateral subjects, and all that is left is the elephant in the room.
Music is the only thing I've ever known that doesn't have any rules at all.
I don't think it's good to run on anger, but it's really great when that's the first couple of gallons in your tank - when you've had enough, and you're just pissed off enough to go for it. In a lot of ways, that sort of environment can be a catapult for a great situation.
I think you can separate yourself from your fears. You know what you should do, and it's just scary to do it. But I'd hate to let the fact that I'm scared to do it make me not do it. It ends up defining you. Because the moves you make are then based on what you don't want to do.
I think the best thing I could ever teach my daughter is that she's not an object or a trophy, and that she can trust in herself and believe in herself and that you are not your things, and you are not your job.
I'm not politically correct; I never said I was.
When you get sick and it's extended, you go through all these mental phases, and everyone handles them differently.
The problem is that music is selfish in that you need to make it for yourself, so that you can give it away, and those two things don't jive. I needed to find the right reason to play that had the magic and mystery and excitement that made me want to play in the first place.
I've worked at a deli, I've worked construction, I've worked a few different jobs.
If you wanna be famous, then it's okay if the music is fake, because fame isn't real.
I've always heard music in my head since I was a little kid, so I've always played towards that. If I felt bad, that's what I did.
I think if you play music and you join a scene you're already too late.
I think people listen to whatever they think is good.
I have this coat that I got in a nefarious deal years ago. It's a Johnny Carson coat, and I've had it remade three times. It's mine all the time. Carson was a real man, and I thought, 'Coats for real men by real men? I'm in.'
I've always had a sick sense of humor, and I've always wanted that to permeate the music because I don't take myself seriously. I take the music seriously, but I know I'm not God's gift to anyone except my mom.
I got into guitar because no parent will buy their eight-year-old kid drums unless they're divorced and trying to get back at their wife. You know what I mean?
I'm in three bands, and I love to produce records of other bands, and I have a family that I love. I wanted to be everything for everybody and do all of that... I think I just really beat myself up until I got really sick and needed surgery, because it was physically manifesting itself.
People don't want their actors acting like musicians.
People think that when they're playing it safe, they're trying to preserve what they have, but there is no preservation of what you have in music. There's no safety in music.
I'm a fairly upbeat and happy guy, you know? I don't like people that feel sorry for themselves, and I traditionally stay away from people like that.
Looking for equality everywhere is a huge mistake because equals are terrible and boring. But a sense of fairness and justice is a totally different thing and a much more complex thing.
Sometimes hard decisions have to be made, and sometimes wonderful decisions have to be made. You've got to be willing to make them all.
Making people uncomfortable is one of my hobbies.
The first record I bought was a Carl Perkins record, because I saw him at The Festival at Sandpoint, Idaho. I loved Elvis and I found out that he wrote 'Blue Suede Shoes'... so connecting that experience of going to see him play was pretty awesome. That's when I realised I wanted to play guitar.
I like to move forward and notice things along the roadside that indicate where I should go.
I think I learned years ago when I went to Hawaii that you don't bring puka shells back. You've got to be careful of your vacation purchases.
I've always considered myself a workaholic... The way I work, I have to turn myself upside down and hang myself by my ankles and wring myself out like a wet sweater, and I have to do that with other people, too, because I think that's where something good comes out.
If you're trying to do something different, you can't ask someone to help, because they'll want to make it not different.
I'm not so much of a joiner.
I think more people need to make out.
All I really care about is that I'm being honest and I'm real and I'm coming from a real place. There's a part of me that's a total cad and a part of me that's also a family man.
I look at my career as a body of work, not just Queens of the Stone Age records. I'm in Eagles of Death Metal, I'm in Them Crooked Vultures; I make records with other people.
I like to make the music that I really love. You're supposed to make your favorite music that no one else played, and I'd like to just keep it at that and not really change it at all.
When it's time to make music, that's about getting lost for me. To be a control freak is not half as good as being a freak who's casually in control. You're feeling around in the dark for something that feels good.
Music's supposed to be real. When it really touches you, it's supposed to be real.
I think one of the coolest things you can do is disappear for a while, because it gives you the chance to re-emerge. To sort of pounce out of the jungle.
You wanna be there for everybody, but it's just not possible.
The language that we use now impacts on the ability to vote, it impacts on the marketplace; instead of making things clear, it makes it more confusing. I think we need to stop using neutral language and speak in straighter terms. So when you agree to something, you actually get what you agreed to in the first place.
I think people believe I'm some kind of evil dictator sometimes. But I don't much care about that.
Why would you choose being bitter over choosing to make music? Being bitter is gross. It doesn't amount to anything.
Any band on their first couple records is just trying to keep up with their inspiration.
If I was just in one band, I would have a problem with the amount of time between records because I don't want to wave one flag. I just want to be part of something cool.
I don't mind saying what's on my mind.
Guitar solos, to me, should be a really articulate way to make fun of guitar solos.
I asked my friend Greg Andersson to introduce me to people that can distribute my album.
Sometimes Queens' music is dark, but somehow it's ok to deliver it with a smile on your face because thing's are still going to kick in.
