Josh Homme Sentenced for Brawl

Queens of the Stone Age singer Josh Homme has pleaded no contest to two counts of misdemeanor battery stemming from an attack on Dwarves singer Blag Dahlia at a November Dwarves show in Los Angeles.

Homme was placed on summary probation for thirty-six months. He was also ordered to stay 100 yards away from Dahlia and the Dragonfly club (where the incident occurred), to not possess deadly weapons, to perform community service and to enroll in both an anger management program and a sixty-day residential rehab facility. (The records did not say what the rehab was for.) Two other charges (battery and assault with a deadly weapon) were dropped.

Homme and Blag are former friends believed to have fallen out over Nick Oliveri, an ex-member of the Dwarves who was hired (and later fired) by QOTSA. The lyrics from "Massacre," off the Dwarves' 2004 CD The Dwarves Must Die, include: "This one goes out to Queens of the Trust Fund/You slept on my floor/And now I'm sleeping through your motherfucking records." Oliveri appears on the track.

Witnesses to the attack say Homme showed up backstage and poured a bottle of beer over Dahlia's head while singing, "Whatcha gonna do?" A shoving match ensued, and Homme struck Dahlia on the head. Despite the blow, Dahlia performed as planned. After the show, his wife drove him to Hollywood Presbyterian Medical Center, where he received stitches. Police were not called at the time, but security removed Homme from the venue. Dahlia (a.k.a. Paul Cafaro) pressed charges on December 29th.

Homme is due back at the Hollywood Courthouse, Division 79, on July 27th to prove that he enrolled in both anger management and rehab.

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Song Stories

“Oh Sherrie”

Steve Perry | 1984

Steve Perry's girlfriend Sherrie Swafford was actually in the studio when Perry began writing this song--his lone Top Ten hit as a solo act--with two co-writers. The trio began at midnight one night with just "Oh, Sherrie!" and "hold on, hold on." Three hours later, they had a complete song. Swafford, however, had to wait until the next day to hear it. "Sherrie actually got tired and went to bed," Perry said. She also appeared in the video, but their relationship did not hold on for long.

More Song Stories entries »

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