Josh Homme has revealed that he was diagnosed with cancer in 2022. While he didn’t get into specifics, the Queens of the Stone Age frontman says he underwent successful surgery to remover the cancer, and is still in the process of healing.
In a new interview with Revolver, Homme talked about the difficulties of the past few years, which have included the pandemic, the deaths of close friends, and a messy legal battle with ex-wife Brody Dalle of The Distillers. As it turned out, he privately battled cancer, as well.
“I never say it can’t get any worse,” said Homme. “I never say that, and I wouldn’t advise it. But I do say it can get better. Cancer is just the cherry on top of an interesting time period, you know? I’m extremely thankful that I’ll get through this, and I’ll look back at this as something that’s fucked up — but will have made me better. I’m cool with that. There’s a lot of stuff I want to do. And there’s a lot of people I want to do that with.”
The singer-guitarist added that he’s turned to music as a way of healing during his recent struggles. “I’ve got nothing against therapy,” continued Homme. “I just don’t go because I play [music] instead. Over the last couple years, I’ve done a lot of therapy, but at the end of the day, I understand how to proceed, moving forward with the religion that I use — music.”
He went on to say, “This has been the darkest four years of my life. But that’s OK, too. In the heartaches, my mistakes, these deaths and my own physical things I’m dealing with — even though all that has occurred and smashed my old life to pieces, those pieces I’ve been able to build into a ship that’s about to launch. I will float into my new life from all those pieces.”
Homme channeled his emotions into Queens of the Stone Age’s new album In Times New Roman…, which arrives this Friday (June 16th). QOTSA will support the LP with a recently announced 2023 North American tour, kicking off August 3rd in Sterling Heights, Michigan. Tickets are available here.
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Photo Gallery – Queens of the Stone Age at 2023 Sonic Temple Festival (click to expand and scroll through):