Josh Homme Was Prepared for Backlash Over Producer Mark Ronson
Josh Homme has revealed he was prepared to deal with a backlash from Queens of the Stone Age fans over latest album Villains as soon as they heard he’d hired pop producer Mark Ronson to participate.
In a new interview with The Current, Homme said of some fans’ reaction to Ronson’s role, “I was expecting it. It would be safe to understand that I might have known that that was going to happen. I do believe 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," he added. "That 20 percent of the people might go, ‘It’s changed… Where’s my band that I had?’ You can presuppose 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.’”
In a spoof video that announced the looming arrival of Villains, Homme was seen taking a polygraph test and denying that Ronson – who was present – had worked on the album. Pretending he’d never even heard of the producer, the bandleader asked, “Why would we do that?”
Ahead of the release he’d discussed his attitude to pushing boundaries with his career, saying: “If you don’t risk anything, you’re not gonna get anything.” He reinforced his feelings at a recent Q&A with music students when he told them, “Risk nothing, get nothing.”
Last week Queens of the Stone Age were confirmed as among the nominees for the 2018 Grammys. They recently announced a North American tour running from December until May.