Voodoo Boogie

What’s the cape all about?

That’s the Avenger of Rock & Roll. He showed up around the third day of our tour with Placebo, when I could see the joy in the faces of all the people that were showing up, of having rock & roll returned to them, and by having the uncomfortable cliquish conformity of “You can’t listen to the Clash unless you’ve been into them since ’81” attitude lifted from their shoulders. And miraculously, I think it was supernatural, when I turned to look at myself in the mirror yet again, I saw that I had a cape on that said “Rock & Roll.” As if the spirits of rock & roll anointed me at that very moment, on that third day, and I did rise and don my black leather gloves and the gauntlet of rock & roll, and goddammit, I could boogie.

That you can.

Our motto is “Make Little Richard proud.” See, it’s not just the music you play, it’s the attitude you represent. Cuz you have to approach rock & roll like you’re a medium. Robert Fripp said something to the effect that you’re calling on whatever that entity of music is to wrap its cape around you and take you into its confidence, and those are the moments that inform your pride. Well, rock & roll gave me the fuckin’ cape itself!And has sent me to wrap it around everybody.

All of your songs sound like other songs, including each other.

There’s nothing new under the sun, so I steal everything. Any talent you think I have is showmanship, it’s special effects. Most of Eagles of Death Metal is taking somewhat more highly evolved song patterns from Pentagram or Chaka Khan or Mountain and running them through the Bachman-Turner Overdrive “Taking Care of Business” machine with the Rolling Stones tuning. Only I don’t have as long fingers as Keith Richards, so I keep the finesse low. We have four beats. If you have one good beat going, why get anything else? I can’t think of any more beats. It’s a sex beat: in-out, in-out. That’s about it. [Considering.] No, we have about 12 beats now. In fact I bought a beat CD. It’s cool, I’m getting into it, it’s kind of corny but you have to have something.

You’re giving away all your trade secrets!

But in a sense, I haven’t given anything away at all. Cuz really all space travel is, is a little bit of propulsion and little bit of fuel at the appropriate time.

You write and sing all the songs, but the Eagles of Death Metal are still pigeonholed as a “Josh Homme of Queens of the Stone Age side project.”

As much as I love me, I’m not kidding myself. Only about 11 percent of the people really give a shit about my trip right now. I get plugged in at this one level, but nobody wants to talk to me unless Josh is standing next to me. It’s a coattail. I just made his coattails extra-comfortable for me, so I can ride them longer. But there’s no shame in that, because that’s what a side project is. People are like, “It’s entertaining!” And that’s shocking for a side project. They go, “It’s a side project that rocks. Josh is a good drummer. Who the fuck is Timmy? And oh my god, did you see his mustache?”