The past decade has been far from perfect for Josh Homme, but this year things are Perfecth.
The Queens of the Stone Age frontman was diagnosed with cancer in 2022, but thankfully declared himself cancer-free a year later. Then in 2024, he underwent an unspecified emergency surgery that forced the band to postpone a run of tour dates. All this after a tumultuous divorce that played out in the public eye.
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Through it all, Homme and the rest of QOTSA found themselves in one of their most creative periods. Just days before undergoing the aforementioned surgery, the band played a gig in the Catacombs of Paris, turning the cavernous performance into an ambitious release and a subsequent tour.
All of the above experiences influenced Queens of the Stone Age’s new album, Perfecth, a compelling collection of nine introspective songs that delve into broken relationships, brushes with death, and appreciation for life.
QOTSA will support the album with a spring 2027 North American tour featuring support from alt-rock heroes Pixies and experimental hip-hop act Wheelchair Sports Camp (pick up tickets here).
In the lead-up to the album’s release, Consequence caught up with Josh Homme to discuss select songs on Perfecth, his longtime friendship with Dave Grohl, and the chances of reuniting two of his other acclaimed bands, among other topics. (Including his personal picks for the Best Bands of All Time.)
The following interview has been edited for clarity. You can also watch the interview via the video below or on YouTube.
How much did the Catacombs recording and the subsequent tour influence the new album Perfecth?
Well, a bulk of the record was done, but we sort of understood how they were braided together, and we allowed ourselves to go on tour and see if that would jar anything loose or make an impact. So, it was nice to come back to it afterwards. I think they’re very much holding hands, these two records, somehow.
And the title Perfecth, aside from making it difficult for us music journalists, what’s the inspiration behind the album name?
I just think that there is no perfect — that perhaps it’s an ideal you would strive for, but it’s not something to actually expect. Here at Queens of the Stone Age Corporation, we have a bit of gallows humor, so I think perfect is funny when you’re with a group, but it’s not so funny when you’re alone, and you deal with the realization that things don’t always go well, things break. But I think that’s just being a human being, and that’s just the things you go through in this life.
The song “Insignificant Other” seems like it’s a real personal one for you. Its lyrics appear to be about a broken relationship. There’s two lines that really contrasted — one is, “I still wish you were mine,” and the other is, “Letting go of you is beautiful.”
It’s an incredible thing to be someone’s significant other, or to have a significant other. In the tangles of a relationship, you have moments where you say, “I would die for this person.” Or you go to them with your deepest secrets. When something happens in your life, you say, “I wanna tell you first.” And it’s such a far distance between that and understanding that something’s over, and that that person is no longer going to be in your life.
I think those things can actually happen in a flash, in such a short span, that it really just makes you sort of forced to deal with the temporary nature of love at times. But I think the real secret sauce to life seems to be in accepting what is. And it may not be everything you want or everything you wish for, but there’s a real freedom in being the first kid on your block to accept things as they are. And oftentimes that requires letting go.
Another standout track is “Where the Goth Girls At?” There’s a line in there that goes, “ Never felt so alive as the day I almost died.” You’ve had a couple of near-death experiences in your life. Can you talk about the inspiration for that song?
I think everyone in this life is either experiencing a near-death experience, or you certainly will if you haven’t. There’s a bit of euphoria post those [incidents]. I almost drowned when I was 12, and it was really wonderful in the days and weeks post that. Food tastes amazing and the sunset was fucking juicy. I’m not saying you should go out and get yourself a near-death experience, but certainly those occur, and that euphoria, it takes a while to dissipate. It’s hard not to feel the joy in those moments after that.
Also, growing up in a small town, skateboarding as a kid, and seeing the goth girls at the makeup counter at JCPenney’s, and in Palm Springs, where I’m from, the Palm Desert, these golf retiree ladies, they also would have crazy makeup. And watching these goth girls do the wildest makeup ever on these 70- and 80-year-old ladies, it was hard to tell the difference between them. And it was almost like a baton pass of culture shock. And I just always admired the goth girls because when you’re in a small town, projecting that to the world is an act of revolt. I just always had a great admiration for the goth girls in the desert.
There are David Bowie vibes throughout the album, especially on the song “Sunday.” I interviewed Trent Reznor from Nine Inch Nails, and Corey Taylor from Slipknot, and they both cited Bowie as an influence. What about his music do you think has made such an impact on a wide range of artists?
As one of the great chameleons in art, it’s easy to admire him… watching and listening and hearing him take great leaps and great risks. I think it’s the obligation if you get to do this job that you don’t attempt to stay still in any manner, but you allow yourself to transform. So perhaps it’s that… This song was also on the Post Pop Depression record with Iggy Pop. I think Bowie was heavily influenced by Iggy, as well. And I think they had a shared influence. These are all good things.
It’s great to be a fan, it’s not cool to copy. But it’s cool to hear something of yourself and someone else and wonder how you can take those risks and extrapolate those artistic decisions for yourself. When we did this tune on the Iggy record, I wanted him to know that he had everything that I could give. And so when I wrote that riff and those things, at first I almost wanted to keep it for myself. And then the next morning I saw him and I said, “You know, I wanted to keep this for myself, but I wanna share this ’cause I want you to know you have everything I have on this project, and if need be, we’ll cover it.”
I think Bowie and Iggy laid out a roadmap of “China Girl” and things like that, where you don’t need to covet the music and hold it for yourself. It’s just something to be shared and used and sort of passed around like a joint. We did his version, now we do ours.
I saw you on the Post Pop Depression tour, and it was great. Iggy is my all-time favorite live performer. I caught him last year at the CBGB Fest in Brooklyn at 78 years old, and he just tore it up. What was that experience like working with an icon, the godfather of punk?
It was actually the coolest thing I’ve ever been allowed to be part of. I could have done that forever. But like anything wonderful, it has to stop in order to be appreciated, I think. I’m from a smaller town, and so you’d say, “Oh, Gary, he’s one in 30,000.” And you move to the big city, and it’s, “Oh, he’s one in 500,000,” or, “She’s one in a million.” But there’s 6 billion, what, 7 billion people? I would say it’s easy to say that Iggy’s one in 6 billion. He’s an incredible poet with great word economy, so you know exactly what he’s saying with the picture he paints with words in the least amount of words possible.
No matter who he’s collaborating with, you’ll get the very best of him. And so if he did something and you don’t like it, it’s probably the other person’s fault.