Queens of the Stone Age frontman Josh Homme explained why playing with Dave Grohl feels so addictive, in an interview with Rick Beato. Homme praised the expressiveness of the Foo Fighters bandleader on the drums. He also said that playing anything with Grohl feels comfortable.
Homme first described how easy Grohl is to play with, whichever instrument he sits behind.
“He’s so easy to play with, it’s kind of – it’s so easy that it’s really addictive,” Homme said. “It doesn’t really matter what he sits behind. Of course, when he sits behind the drums it’s so musical. So, whatever you play on a song, he just does it back here and that feels so comfortable.”
Homme then described how Grohl responds to a riff on the drums.
“You play him a riff, and he’ll play that riff back at you on the drums,” Homme continued. “And then he’ll play a drum counter-melody that would have been a harmony going on, that’s being beaten out of it. That’s where the stuff is so inspiring. It’s sick.”
He also pointed to Grohl’s consistent touch across the kit.
“He does this very strange thing where everything is the same hardness,” Homme said. “He can make a floor tom as loud as a snare and I’m always like, ‘What the f*ck?'”
Homme added that the consistency holds at lower volumes too.
“Someone could say, ‘Well he hits them all hard’, except when he’s doing it soft it’s the same too,” he said. “So there’s this sonic consistency across all boundaries. He can just dial it up and dial it back.”
Those comments reflect a partnership that goes back more than two decades. It has shaped some of the most important records in Queens of the Stone Age’s catalog.
Grohl first played drums on a Queens of the Stone Age album with Songs for the Deaf. Interscope Records released the band’s third studio album on August 27, 2002. It was the first QOTSA record to feature Grohl behind the kit. It became one of the group’s best-known releases.
Homme turned to Grohl when the album needed a drummer to get across the finish line. He later recalled the moment he made the call.
“I called Dave and said, ‘Do you want to finish this record?'”
Grohl returned to the band for …Like Clockwork in 2013. In late 2012, Homme said that drummer Joey Castillo had left Queens of the Stone Age. He added that Grohl would play drums on the new album. Jon Theodore later took over the drum duties for the remaining songs.
The two musicians also worked together outside Queens of the Stone Age. Homme and Grohl formed the supergroup Them Crooked Vultures with Led Zeppelin bassist John Paul Jones. The band gave them another chance to play side by side.
