Queens of the Stone Age frontman Josh Homme was asked about Kyuss fans and other old school ‘purists’ criticizing him for working with pop producer Mark Ronson in a new Current interview.
OAKE: So, it’s not necessarily you dictating? I know a lot of the old-school purists, especially if they go all the way back to Kyuss, when they heard the name Mark Ronson, a lot of people were like: “What the hell has happened to my band? What’s going on?” Were you surprised by the backlash?
HOMME: No, I was expecting it. It would be safe to understand that I might have known that that was going to happen. I do believe that there’s no stasis or static in life. You’re growing or dying. And, I feel if I’m challenging myself and if we’re challenging each other, we’re going in the right direction. The by-product of that is that anyone that’s into us should expect the poke in the chest because we’re doing it to ourselves first. Part of me thinks that every time we put something out, we may lose 20 percent of the people. That 20 percent of the people might go: “It’s changed! Where’s my band that I had?” You can pre-suppose that. I told this to Ronson, “If 15 percent of the people don’t hate you, you suck.” He said: “I’m just trying to get it to 40.”
