Josh Homme puts his leopard-print-clad foot down and accelerates up the Pacific Coast Highway in a cloud of burning rubber. We’re in his 1967 silver Chevrolet Camaro, the only car the Queens of the Stone Age frontman has ever owned. The vehicle has been the 50-year-old’s constant companion since he was 14 and was once, for a brief time in the Nineties, his only home. Barely audible above the roar of the engine, Chet Baker is singing ‘I Fall In Love Too Easily’. The ocean is to our left, so we turn right, up into the Malibu hills, towards a quiet spot looking out over the water that Homme describes, grinning through his shaggy white goatee, as “make-out point”.
It is six years since Queens of the Stone Age last released an album, and they have been six of the hardest years of Homme’s life. In 2019 he separated from his wife, Distillers frontwoman Brody Dalle, after nearly 14 years of marriage. Their divorce, finalised earlier this year, was made all the messier by accusations of violence, restraining orders on both sides and a lengthy tug-of-war over their kids. In March, Homme was awarded sole legal custody of all three children.
Homme’s world has also been upended by the deaths of some of his closest friends. In 2022, in the space of two months, Homme lost former bandmate Mark Lanegan, Foo Fighters drummer Taylor Hawkins and his best friend, the Treme actor Rio Hackford. In total he has grieved eleven deaths in the last seven years, including another well-known drinking buddy in chef and travel journalist Anthony Bourdain.
After a self-imposed period of exile and mourning, Homme returns this week with the eighth Queens of the Stone Age record ‘In Times New Roman’. Leaning against the hood of his car, with nothing but the ocean in front of him, Homme tells NME how learning the art of acceptance shaped the album’s raw and unvarnished sound.
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