(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "WHERE THE GOTH GIRLS AT?")
QUEENS OF THE STONE AGE: (Singing) Sterile eyes get blue-applied persuasions.
SCOTT SIMON, HOST:
The past few years have been hard times for Queens of the Stone Age front man, Josh Homme. He's lost friends and collaborators. He's been through a messy public divorce and child custody battle and a stint in rehab, and he's battled cancer.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "WHERE THE GOTH GIRLS AT?")
QUEENS OF THE STONE AGE: (Singing) Never felt so alive like the day I almost died.
SIMON: And in the band's newest record, Josh Homme explores life and love, its beauty, its messiness. The album is called - I hope I nailed this pronunciation - "Perfecth" - perfect with an H at the end. Josh Homme of Queens of the Stone Age joins us now from our studios in New York. Thanks so much for being with us.
JOSH HOMME: Oh, thank you for having me.
SIMON: And please help me understand the title.
HOMME: I mean, I think it's fairly self-explanatory. And in this life, there really is no perfect, and I think that's OK. And accepting that is certainly my first order of business.
SIMON: Yeah. What led you there?
HOMME: Well, I'm 53, and as you do, you go through these ups and downs in life. And frankly, as it pertains to music, I love - if you've ever noticed this on the song by the Rolling Stones, "A Honky Tonk Woman (ph)." But it starts at one tempo, and towards the end, they're going much faster. And that's not perfect, but it is wonderful.
SIMON: How do you feel about having your music described as desert rock?
HOMME: Well, I'm from the Coachella Valley, so that's Palm Springs, Joshua Tree, you know, Coachella, and makes sense to me.
(SOUNDBITE OF QUEENS OF THE STONE AGE SONG, "INSIGNIFICANT OTHER")
HOMME: When you come from a smaller town and do something like play music, you don't expect it to turn into a career. Let's just say I'm surprised this is still what I'm doing after all these years.
SIMON: Why?
HOMME: I don't know. I think - I'm the son of a contractor, and I just thought that I would do this. And oftentimes I wake up and say, wow, this is still going on, you know? And it's good work if you can get it, Scott.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "INSIGNIFICANT OTHER")
QUEENS OF THE STONE AGE: (Singing) What can I say? You're so clever, clever, never even saw the blade.
SIMON: How is "Perfecth" different in style from some of your earlier material, do you think?
HOMME: I think it would be fair assessment of us is that, at times, our music is almost complicated, especially on the first few listens. And I think this is an album that's a little more simply done and a little more calm.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "FROM THE CLIFF")
QUEENS OF THE STONE AGE: (Singing) Saw you in a way today. Sunlight on your dress. Your silhouette reminded me all I have to do.
HOMME: The luxury of doing this is that you get to keep mining the various personalities, you know, the various emotions in your personality. And so you get to keep changing. And also, if you find yourself repeating yourself, that so quickly leaves you feeling stuck.
SIMON: What are you trying to work through in your songs, do you think?
HOMME: Well, I think our records have gotten more and more personal and introspective and vulnerable as the years have gone on. But I think it's only natural that your music would get more and more personal. Because if something feels difficult to say or you feel a little vulnerable or insecure about something, I feel like that's the place, lyrically, to go.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "IT'S ONLY LOVE")
QUEENS OF THE STONE AGE: (Singing) I throw myself on the tracks. I take a leap over the edge. I don't attempt to figure out the why or where. I just don't care.
SIMON: I've got to ask you about something difficult.
HOMME: OK.
SIMON: 2017, during a show nine years ago, you kicked Chelsea Lauren, a photographer, in the face. She was photographing your performance. She had to be treated at a hospital. You did ultimately apologize. Why did you do that?
HOMME: Well, some of what you're saying isn't true - isn't accurate.
SIMON: Well, tell...
HOMME: She...
SIMON: Yeah. Go ahead.
HOMME: I would say that I was going - having a particularly difficult moment in my own life. And what happened is I decided to go wild, I think. I think sometimes in my life, there's been moments I find myself loose and unbridled and out of control. And the truth is, I couldn't see anybody. So I couldn't see who that was. And I just saw camera lens on stage. I've put my foot on many a camera lens in many a day. The goal isn't to hurt somebody. That's not the goal. So I didn't really actually get a chance to see who it was. And it never actually made contact with this person. It was just putting a foot on a camera. And, yeah.
SIMON: You got to recognize it's hard to do an interview with you without asking about it, though.
HOMME: You can ask anything you want.
SIMON: Yeah.
HOMME: You know? I got to tell you, Scott, I'd love to explain the whole situation to you, but I don't really feel like it would help, because I feel as though I'd apologized to her. She did exactly what she felt she needed to do, and I'm at peace with that.
SIMON: I've been told you've been through - can we call it rehab?
HOMME: Yeah. Yeah. I - yeah. You could.
SIMON: And what can you tell us?
HOMME: Well, I don't know. All that feels really personal. I didn't go for drugs or alcohol. So if you really want to know, Scott, I went so I wouldn't kill myself. And, you know, I'm not sure that, really, me saying, oh, well, it wasn't this. I wasn't trying to hurt anyone. I was trying to hurt myself, you know? I'm not sure that you really care about that or that that really helps. I think people have probably made their decisions about that already.
SIMON: I - if it's not too personal, I would like to know.
HOMME: Well, I mean, why stop now, Scott?
SIMON: Is it in your music? Let's put it that way.
HOMME: Well, of course it's in my music. Music is my religion. It's my way to find my way out when I'm lost, when I feel the most joy I could feel and when I feel on the edge of something terrible.
(SOUNDBITE OF QUEENS OF THE STONE AGE SONG, "RUN AWAY FROM THE MOB")
SIMON: It's your life...
HOMME: Yeah.
SIMON: ...This music. Yeah.
HOMME: Well, if you can, you find something you really love, and you take a shot at it, take a run at really turning yourself over to it, you know? Look, I haven't - I've been anything but perfect. And I've had moments where even performing and doing this job has confused me, frightened me, angered me. But it's always, at the end of the day, been at the forefront of how I've unstuck myself, how I've sort of freed myself from some of the darker moments in my life.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "RUN AWAY FROM THE MOB")
QUEENS OF THE STONE AGE: (Singing) They're out playing God. It's the same old lines.
SIMON: Josh Homme - front man, of course, of Queens of the Stone Age. His group's new album, "Perfecth," is out now. Thank you so much for speaking with us.
HOMME: See you.
SIMON: If you or someone you know may be considering suicide or is in crisis, please call or text 988 to reach the Suicide & Crisis Lifeline.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "RUN AWAY FROM THE MOB")
QUEENS OF THE STONE AGE: (Singing) Keep your sister and brother close. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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