Queens of the Stone Age frontman Josh Homme revealed that he was diagnosed with cancer last year, but he has since undergone a successful operation to have it removed.
Homme declined to share details about the illness and procedure from which he is still healing, but he expressed his gratitude at having made it through to the other side. “I never say it can’t get any worse. I never say that, and I wouldn’t advise it. But I do say it can get better,” he 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.”
The past few years have been tumultuous for Homme, who divorced the Distillers singer and guitarist Brody Dalle in 2019 and dealt with a messy, highly publicized custody battle over their three children. (Homme’s publicist released a statement in March 2023 claiming he had been granted “sole legal custody of all three children,” while Dalle was allowed “supervised visitation” of their youngest son.) These experiences informed Queens of the Stone Age’s new album In Times New Roman … , which arrives on Friday and marks their first full-length since 2017’s Villains.
The band first previewed the LP with lead single “Emotion Sickness,” which Homme also identified as the album’s predominant theme. “I definitely had a serious case of emotion sickness,” he said. “There were times I almost didn’t make it. It’s OK for me to ruminate on that. It’s not OK to stay there, feel too sorry for myself. This has been the darkest four years of my life. But that’s OK, 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 will embark on a headlining North American tour in support of In Times New Roman … from August through October, supported variously by the Armed, Phantogram, Viagra Boys and Jehnny Beth.
2023 Rock Tour Preview
Reunions, farewells and long-awaited shows are on the horizon.