Josh Homme has spoken out about his relationship with Mark Ronson – and about the ‘bad boy’ sound of new Queens Of The Stone Age album ‘Villains’.

Yesterday saw the long-awaited return of QOTSA by launching the Ronson-produced new album ‘Villains’ with comeback single ‘The Way You Used To Do’ and announcing a UK tour. Speaking to NME, Homme revealed that the pair bonded over nights out and working together on Lady Gaga’s ‘Joanne’.

“I’ve known Mark casually for a couple of years – we’ve both been up late in the same places,” frontman Homme told NME. “In the same way that I met Mark Rankin by listening to ‘Rolling in The Deep’ and I thought, ‘man this song sounds amazing’… My kids were listening to ‘Uptown Funk’, and I thought ‘this sounds amazing, it’s really tight and dry’ and that was the direction I wanted to take this record in.


“Then Ronson called me up to work on this Gaga stuff and within half an hour I was like ‘I think I’ll ask Ronson to do this’ – it will confuse and dismay people. I think one of the true joys of being in a rock’n’roll band is to define expectations just so you can defy them.”

Speaking of the sound of the new album, Homme added: “There are some slower moments but I like to dance, man, and whether it’s Eagles or Queens or Vultures there’s no reason not to conjoin rock’n’roll and dance and hallelujah and darkness and all that in one thing.

“In a world of desperately going for ‘likes’ I think ‘Villains’ is more like ‘we’ll take the dislikes, we’ll take all the outcasts’. This album is here to do bad guy stuff.”

Homme also told us about the meaning of ‘The Way You Used To Do’ – and how it’s ‘all about fucking‘.

Check back at NME soon for more of our interview with Josh Homme

Advertisement ‘Villains’ will be released on August 25. Meanwhile, Queens Of The Stone Age’s upcoming UK tour dates are below. Tickets will be on sale from 9am on June 21 and will be available here November 19 – Manchester Arena

November 21 – The O2, London

November 23 – Usher Hall, Edinburgh

November 24 – 3Arena, Dublin