Josh Homme Quotes

[In response to the question "This record will probably be bigger than the last one, which was bigger than the one before, and so on. How big do you want to be?"] Man, I don't really give a shit. I mean... you know, let me just break it down; I love to play, I'm from a small town in the desert, I never thought I would be here and I just wanna play, man. I don't care if it's big or small, you know? Like, Nick is gone and that affects me the most, because I didn't want it to be that way. And some people are going to be like "Well, I don't like it now!" and to them I say fucking goodbye. This is goodbye. Let me be the first to say it, goodbye. Because all I'm doing is just wanting to just play. I just love to play music, and I like people, you know. And there's all kinds of things that get... shoved into that along the way, but that's not alright with me, you know? So, I want to say most of all, like, I'm just going to just show up and play. I'll let everyone else deal with that because I've already dealt with the hard part, you go ahead and deal with the easy part, whether you want to listen or not. And either way; I understand. Because, when it comes to the Queens, whatever everyone else is dealing with, I've dealt with it already, man. So I'll either be drinking with people after the show or not and it's going to be five, five thousand, five million, or five - I don't give a shit. Because I'm really proud of this record and I put a lot into it, I put what I am into it and after that I can't control it. It's not up to me, it's up to you, you know? And I'm okay with that because when I left the studio I knew I loved this stuff and I got to save my friendship, and both of that is a victory, you know? And the rest is up to you, and I'm okay with that too. So let's get it on.

(In response to the question; "What are you going to tell a ten year old who wants to play guitar?") For me that's easy; when you expect anything from music, you expect too much. So you play for yourself, you play to enjoy it and you make the most of it for you, period. You don't - I never thought I would be doing this now. I feel so lucky to be doing this now - I can't believe this is what I do all the time. I know I'm not the greatest guitar player in the world, but I just love it. And I hope that's the only reason I'm here, you know? Because I think - I honestly think that that's enough.

You can't upstroke yourself into toughness.

But I like to be a real man because I have a son and a daughter and they should know what that's like. It's OK to not be macho. But it's not OK to be a pussy.

Risk nothing, get nothing. If you wanna be famous, then it's OK if the music is fake, because fame isn't real.

But the truth is, I don't have ADD. I have OKHY: OK, hell yeah.

In Kyuss and Queens, we allow people to tape our shows, whether it's audio, video or both. You're doing that tonight, but you're no different than someone who buys the ticket. Because the exchanging of music is what should happen. It's one of the only things I like about The Grateful Dead, it's "do you want a tape from '67 on June 2nd? You can get one". I probably wouldn't like the music on the tape, but it's still possible. My problem is that people sell our live shows for too much money. They should be the cost of the video and shipping. And in turn, MP3 take a record that I've spent money and time and put so much love into, take it, and just give it away. But they make the money. MP3 and Napster, they make tons of money, but they say "Oh, it's about free exchange!", but that just sounds like just another jack-off thief in the dark, that doesn't have guts enough to admit what they're doing. I had someone say something interesting to me in Canada, "Well, would you rather have the label fuck you over, or the fans fuck you over?". And I just said, "Neither!". And when it gets posed to me in such a way I sit there and think, "You know, what am I doing? Maybe I should skip through the countryside, playing flute (?)". Because MP3 certainly is like [stabbing sound and motion]. If you're an unsigned band, then it really helps, but then, you know? I don't wanna censor anyone, and I'm no one's daddy, I'm not going to monitor the internet, but I think there's a moral side to it too; I don't steal from you, you don't steal from me. Seems fair, you know?

It's like catching a fish, you know what I mean? It's the fish that's beautiful, not the fisherman. And I think whoever hasn't understood that attitude in Queens is not here any more. And if I ever think the fisherman's better than the fish, I hope someone fuckin' fires me too.

...but I'm also a father, a husband and a raging alcoholic...

I think that provided us to do it this time, because it's like okay, we've cleared that air, you know, we're friends and we respect that he's the best rock drummer in the world, you know. You can be as good, but you’re not better than Dave Grohl.

I'm also beyond pissed, as in not pissed, because I kinda figure they just don’t know better by now. It’s like when a dog shits in the house, you can hit 'em with a paper but they really don’t know what the fuck happened. How can retarded kids know to not throw a Frisbee at the forehead of another retarded kid?

And the fact of the matter is that everyone should play music because it's such a beautiful gift. It's my religion. But maybe not everyone should play it in front of me. It's okay to play music in your rocking chair or whatever.

I THINK OF INTERSCOPE AND ALL THESE LABELS AS THE BIGGEST FUCKING IDIOTS ON THE PLANET. And print that in capitals, because they can’t do anything to me.

My favorite music is hooky, quirky, arty, dark, surprising, heavy, groovy, soft, emotional but not emo. It wears a sweater because it’s cold, not because it's stylistically there.

Yeah, I can make all the tequila in a bottle disappear. It’s a talent. Nothing comes easy and talent is something you get but, if you don’t develop it, it becomes like an apple; you keep taking bites of it until it’s gone. So you have to plant the seeds. Then you have the orchard. And then you have Jonestown.’