Queens of the Stone Age Talk Radiohead, VMAs, Playing a Salt Mine (Plus Bonus Six-Pack Q&A)

When Rock Daily caught up with Queens of the Stone Age's Josh Homme and Joey Castillo backstage at the Theater at Madison Square Garden Saturday night, the pair were game to offer their take on the news of the week (Radiohead's big release, R.E.M. debuting a song on CNN), reveal some plans for the Desert Sessions and Eagles of Death Metal and re-live the wonder of the VMAs, where they performed alongside Foo Fighters. But when it came to our Six-Pack Q&A, the duo were skeptical. Click above to check out the video interview — where they also explain why they're playing a German salt mine in November — and read on for even more.

What's the most rock-star thing you've ever done?
Josh Homme: Not answer that fucking question. That ain't a good question because it's so incriminating. Nothing personal, but fuck that question.

Who's the coolest person you've ever met?
Homme: I think a better question is who's the most famous person you've ever boned. I can't answer that question either, though. If this were a six-pack, it would be a six-pack of Zima. Or Tequiza. Or Mike's Hard Lemonade.

What was your favorite album when you were fourteen?
Homme: This is a good question. Someone slipped a Corona in the six-pack. Discharge, Never Again.
Joey Castillo: The Pistols, Never Mind the Bullocks.

What's on your current playlist?
Homme: I like the Sound of Silver, LCD Soundsystem; the Black Angels were on tour with us and we're listening to their record, and the new Liars record is awesome. [RS points out that they've basically plugged their opening bands.]
Castillo: A good plug would be the new Queens and Eagles of Death Metal.
Homme: So Black Angels is more like a hair plug.

When do you think you'll know it's time to retire?
Castillo: When the drugs are gone.
Homme: The last hit? That's when I retire for the evening, is that what you meant? Do you retire from your religion. Some do. Well, we're not going to. People don't have to buy it, I guess, but we're going to keep going.

What else is new in Homme-land?
Homme: My favorite color now is rouge, which is a style of red. We've probably got six or seven [new Eagles of Death Metal songs recorded] in the heartland of America, in what we call the butter guts of American. It's all the Eagles that you know and love, plus extra, and I don't want to say what we stacked on top of it because I want you to have the happiness of a New Years' Eve pie fight when you hear it.

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Song Stories

“Piano Man”

Billy Joel | 1973

Billy Joel’s first hit, “Piano Man,” was – ironically – an autobiographical lament about how his first album wasn’t a hit. When Cold Spring Harbor didn’t take off, Joel briefly became a lounge pianist in Los Angeles, and this song, about that experience, expressed his frustrations and fears at the time: “And they sit at the bar and put bread in my jar/And say, ‘Man, what are you doing here?’” “It was all right,” Joel said later, about the gig. “I got free drinks and union scale, which was the first steady money I’d made in a long time.”

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