When seminal Palm Desert outfit Kyuss called it a day in 1995, few would have predicted that towering, red-headed guitarist Josh Homme would pivot to form one of the most popular and influential bands of the next 25 years. Effectively a one-man show at its outset, Queens Of The Stone Age was originally dubbed Gamma Ray, but the German power-metallers of the same name forced a change. Reworking a nickname given by legendary producer Nick Goss (‘Kings Of The Stone Age’) into something less aggressively macho, the eventual QOTSA moniker would be emblematic of the sex and swagger with which they would take over the world. “Rock should be heavy enough for the boys and sweet enough for the girls,” Josh explained in interviews early on. “That way everyone’s happy an...
