QUEENS OF THE STONE AGE frontman JOSH HOMME reveals he was diagnosed with cancer in 2022
14-06-2023
In a new interview with Revolver, QUEENS OF THE STONE AGE frontman Josh Homme said that he was “dealing with a lot of stuff” in his personal life during the making of the band’s upcoming album “In Times New Roman…”, including going through a messy, acrimonious divorce with Brody Dalle in 2019 and being diagnosed with cancer in 2022. Homme didn’t go into detail about the cancer other than to say that he underwent successful surgery to remove it, though he’s still healing.
“I never say it can’t get any worse,” he said. “I never say that, and I wouldn’t advise it. But I do say it can get better,” Homme told Revolver. “Cancer is just the cherry on top of an interesting time period, you know? I’m extremely thankful that I’ll get through this, and I’ll look back at this as something that’s fucked up — but will have made me better. I’m cool with that. There’s a lot of stuff I want to do. And there’s a lot of people I want to do that with.”
Homme went on to say that all the recent personal challenges have made him stronger.
“I definitely had a serious case of emotion sickness,” he said, referencing one of the songtitles on “In Times New Roman…”. “There were times I almost didn’t make it. It’s okay for me to ruminate on that. It’s not okay to stay there, feel too sorry for myself. This has been the darkest four years of my life. But that’s okay, too. In the heartaches, my mistakes, these deaths and my own physical things I’m dealing with — even though all that has occurred and smashed my old life to pieces, those pieces I’ve been able to build into a ship that’s about to launch. I will float into my new life from all those pieces.”
QUEENS OF THE STONE AGE have unveiled the official Liam Lynch-created lyric video for “Carnavoyeur”, the latest offering from their epic eighth album, “In Times New Roman…”
Watch “Carnavoyeur” below.
In contrast to its predecessor, “Carnavoyeur” finds QUEENS OF THE STONE AGE weaving more subtle shades of sinister: Mesmerizing washes of strings cascade atop the band’s trademark rock solid foundation, while Joshua Homme‘s mellifluent vocals swaddle the listener with their warm and all too familiar tones of acceptance and resignation: “When there’s nothing I can do, I smile…” While the stunning, honeyed melodies of “Carnavoyeur” are undeniably, well, really pretty, this is still QUEENS OF THE STONE AGE, and there’s no shortage of viscera-rumbling drums and bass or spine-chilling guitar interplay.
“In Times New Roman…” will be available across all platforms on June 16 via Matador Records. On the eve of release fans are invited to ring in the album’s release at Midnight Club parties taking place at record shops and pubs across 23 countries. The Midnight Club starts at 11 p.m. June 15 and will feature giveaways, exclusive merch including limited edition colored vinyl, and — in a few select locations — signed merchandise and ticket giveaways. Midnight Club will provide the QUEENS OF THE STONE AGE faithful with a first chance to hear “In Times New Roman…” in its entirety, amongst friends, family and of course appropriate levels of bacchanalia.
QUEENS OF THE STONE AGE‘s last album, 2017’s “Villains”, debuted at No. 3 on the Billboard 200 chart.
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