Queens of the Stone Age: No One Knows

by Joel McIver

This updated edition of the first ever book about Queens Of The Stone Age takes in nine years of chaos. Since the first edition appeared in 2005, Josh Homme's band has undergone multiple line-up changes, toured the world and released two acclaimed albums. They have taken on a new version of Homme's old band Kyuss in court and helped to spawn multiple projects such as Them Crooked Vultures and a supergroup featuring Homme, Foo Fighters singer Dave Grohl and Led Zeppelin bassist John Paul Jones. Along the way there have been death, near-death and physical confrontations of all kinds, with Homme's near-fatal asphyxiation during a knee operation in 2010 almost ending the band. Want to know about the pitfalls of being in a rock band? Read it all here...

Genres: Music, Nonfiction

311 pages, Kindle Edition

First published September 10, 2005

Reviews

[Mark Sinnott · Rating 2 out of 5]

I am a fan of the band, but this book didn't offer anything that I didn't already know. It read like the longest magazine article that was ever written.

[Adam Cormier · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good background info on QOTSA and all related projects that Josh Homme has been involved with. I enjoyed it a lot.

[Stevie Crotty · Rating 3 out of 5]

A decent biography of my favourite band. I especially liked the sections that covered the desert rock scene of Palm Springs, California in the late 80s / early 90s and the emergence of the legendary band Kyuss where the future members of QOTSA honed their skills and musicianship. The transition from the intense, heavy, improvisational jams of Kyuss towards the tighter, sharper, more focused song writing of QOTSA was very interesting to read about.
The dynamic and unlikely partnership of lead guitarist Josh Homme and bassist Nick Oliveri that developed from the Kyuss era is consistent throughout. The book covers every tour and album up until their eventual fallout, which was followed by the subsequent release of QOTSA's fourth LP, Lullabies To Paralyze, in 2005.
Anyone who is a fan of either Kyuss or QOTSA knows that it can be tricky keeping up with the ever changing line-ups, but I thought the book did well to timeline the key events and changes in personnel, offering different backgrounds to each notable collaborator including Dave Grohl, Mark Lanegan, Chris Goss, John Garcia, Brant Bjork and multiple others.
The main criticism of this book would be that it relied heavily on interview excerpts from various media outlets. It felt like I was reading a mishmash of different Rolling Stone or guitar magazine articles. Some passages were just downright repeated, which seemed very lazy and thrown together last minute, especially later in the book when discussing Songs For The Deaf.
But overall I enjoyed reading about the creative process they put in to each Kyuss and QOTSA record, as every one produced is so uniquely crafted. It seems the easy going nature of mainstay Josh Homme and the merry-go-round of eclectic collaborators coming in and out of the project really brought a fresh approach to each release, which in turn contributed to the lasting quality of these albums.
I also liked the light shed on the different side projects the QOTSA regulars were involved in such as Mondo Generator, Eagles Of Death Metal, and in particular the Desert Sessions.

[Gabi · Rating 3 out of 5]

It was an interesting read, especially the first few chapters about the desert scene.

[Philippe Lenain · Rating 1 out of 5]

poor. some anecdots told until 3 times. too much pages for little content.

[Kalpa Kassinen · Rating 2 out of 5]

Bit meh