Josh Homme

Queens Of The Stone Age's Josh Homme was an unlikely hard rock frontman. Indeed, the lanky Homme began his career purely as a guitarist, content to let others take the spotlight. However, after playing in the critically acclaimed -- but commercially negligible -- stoner-metal band Kyuss in the early 1990s, Homme went on to play rhythm guitar briefly with one of first grunge bands, The Screaming Trees.

Homme left that band to form his own group due to dissatisfaction with the band's disharmony. It was ironic, then, that Queens were just as fractious an outfit with Homme being the only constant member over their recording career.

Homme was born in Joshua Tree, CA in 1973 and grew up in Palm Desert, CA. He took up the guitar at the age of nine and joined his first band at 12 before going on to form his own heavy metal group, Sons Of Kyuss, two years later. The name was shortened to Kyuss after they released their first EP Sons Of Kyuss (1990). The band became local heroes due to their habit of hosting "generator parties" in the nearby desert, firing up their amps in the wilderness with a gasoline-powered generator and jamming into the night.

Kyuss's first LP Wretch (1991) was critically well received but commercially disappointing. Homme began to co-produce Kyuss's albums beginning with their second LP Blues For The Red Sun (1992). The band split up after the release of their fourth album And The Circus Leaves Town (1995). Disillusioned with Kyuss's failure, Homme didn't play music for almost a year until garage rockers The Screaming Trees invited him to tour with them in 1996.

Homme left a year later to form Gamma Ray, soon changing the band's name to Queens Of The Stone Age. Homme had not planned on being the group's vocalist and only started singing after a number of frontmen turned him down. Their debut Queens Of The Stone Age (1998) was a solid, straightforward rock album but the follow-up Rated R (2000) was considerably more inventive, and proved the band's commercial breakthrough.

Homme's vocals were much improved and his skills as a multi-instrumentalist were well utilized: he played drums, percussion and piano as well as co-producing. It was to prove the band's commercial breakthrough, due in large part to the underground smash "Feel Good Hit of the Summer."

Songs For The Deaf (2002) was even more commercially successful but later Homme fell out with bass player and friend Nick Oliveri, firing him from the band in 2004. Nevertheless, Lullabies To Paralyze (2005) entered the album charts at number 5.

Musically restless, Homme also recorded sporadically with his side project Eagles Of Death Metal from 1998 onwards, as well as Them Crooked Vultures - with Foo Fighters' Dave Grohl and Led Zeppelin's John Paul Jones - in 2009. Constantly in demand both as a multi-instrumentalist and a producer, Homme collaborated with P. J. Harvey, Trent Reznor, Primal Scream and UNKLE as well as producing the Arctic Monkeys' Humbug (2009).

After an extended layoff, Queens Of The Stone Age released Like Clockwork in the summer of 2013.