As a former member of Kyuss and the leader of Queens of the Stone Age, Josh Homme is inextricable from the sounds of the desert – in particular, the weed-drenched din of stoner rock. Through his work with both outfits, the frontman and guitar hero put the sounds of his native Palm Desert on the global map, spawning offshoots ranging from stadium-fillers Arctic Monkeys and Royal Blood to more niche outfits like Slift.
Although Homme is not the only figure instrumental in stoner and desert rock emerging, he is undoubtedly the most prominent, with many of the scene’s key players still holding cult status. This stands in contrast to Homme being one of the most easily identifiable figures in modern rock.
Like any musician, Homme’s influences were not confined to bands in his immediate orbit such as Corrosion of Conformity, Fu Manchu, Sleep and Trouble. After leaving Kyuss in 1995 and forming what became Queens of the Stone Age, he found himself unburdened and able to fuse stoner rock with a wide array of personal influences.
He has long cited Black Flag guitarist Greg Ginn’s work on My War and Colin ‘Jock’ Blyth of GBH on City Baby Attacked by Rats as pivotal inspirations. Their impact can be heard particularly on the first three QOTSA albums: Queens of the Stone Age, Rated R and Songs for the Deaf.
However, as a staunch member of Generation X, Homme was also deeply influenced by the Seattle sound, better known as grunge. The movement came to global prominence following Nirvana’s 1991 breakthrough Nevermind, alongside major releases that same year by Pearl Jam and Soundgarden.
When listing his favourite albums of all time for SPIN in 2003 – which included those Black Flag and GBH records – Homme touched on his admiration for Nirvana and explained why he consciously distanced himself from their sound, despite their shared love of heavy, fuzz-drenched riffing.
While Homme is a strong advocate for Nirvana, it was their earlier work that resonated most with him – rawer, rougher, and more sonically abrasive than what followed. Unsurprisingly, he selected their 1989 debut, Bleach, as one of his favourites of all time.
For Homme, Bleach represented a bridge between the aggression of Black Flag and GBH and something entirely new. It also convinced him to pursue a different path altogether, because, as he put it, they had “set the bar so high”.
“By 1989, it seemed like punk rock had sort of died, and I thought Nirvana were picking up where Black Flag and GBH had left off,” Homme said. “I remember thinking I didn’t want my band to sound anything like Nirvana because they had set the bar so high. I didn’t want to get too close.”
