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Queens Of The Stone Age’s Debut Inducted Into Rock Sound Hall Of Fame

Josh Homme's first outing as a Queen closed the door on Kyuss and raised the bar forever for rock - and made a superfan of a Japanese Voyeur

The best thing about Queens Of The Stone Age's self-titled album is that it simply didn't need to be any good. Josh Homme had already carved himself out a niche as a legendary songwriter and musical force with Kyuss but he'd become bored with the scene he'd inadvertently helped to create. In the new issue of Rock Sound he tells us how he wanted to create something totally new, twisting Kyuss' stoner-rock background into something new and exciting, as we celebrate the impact of the mighty 'Queens Of The Stone Age'.

"I'm really proud of Kyuss and I wouldn’t change it," says the legend. "But by that time what I really wanted was freedom; even when it hurts, if you have to walk over glass just show me where the glass is. Kyuss had… the same kind of terrible rulebook that hardcore music had – ‘You can’t do this, you can’t do that’. So I gave up on hardcore and a lot of punk rock stuff and thought, ‘How do I play to girls? And how do I convince girls that trancing out to hard rock is sexy? And how do I not care about what the boys think at all?’ Because they’ll either get it or they won’t, and who fucking cares?”

The record had a seismic impact on Tom Lamb from Japanese Voyeurs, too, as he says:

“I've read Josh Homme describe it as ‘robot rock’ and if you listen songs like ‘You Would Know’ and ‘Walkin’ On The Sidewalks’ I fully agree. Listening as a guitarist it was an awesome album because it sounded like he didn't really give a shit about rules and music theory, and most of the riffs are more rhythmic as opposed to melodic – they kind of lurch along. It sounded fully different from any music I was into at that time. My favourite tracks are ‘If Only’, ‘You Can't Quit Me Baby’ and ‘Walkin’ On The Sidewalks’, but they're all good. Great secret track too!”

For more on 'Queens Of The Stone Age' pick up the new issue of Rock Sound, onsale now.