Josh Homme Asks Interscope To Do Something We Can’t Print In A Headline
Everybody’s extra pissed off today, it seems. And even if Queen Of The Stone Age and working man Josh Homme lacks Morrissey’s bone-dry wit, he’s just as upset with his corporate handlers at Interscope as Moz is with the NME, railing (in all-caps, no less) against “the glorified groupie with the fucking hundred thousand dollar expense accounts” in this typically entertaining sit-down where he makes the most of the f-bomb and gives Jimmy Iovine the atomic gas face.
Antiquiet: When more big bands get free of their contracts and start to do it their own way, how do you think the labels are going to react to losing their grip on what’s been their cash cow for so long?
Josh Homme: Fuck the labels man, they suck. The last thing they’re stripping down is their own expense accounts and shit. I mean, Jimmy Iovine of Interscope records takes a private jet or rides first class to tell a band they don’t get tour support. You know what I mean? Fuck that shit, I’m tired of it. And I’m not gonna be quiet because the American label, not Canada, not Europe, but our American label’s fucking us like crazy, so fuck them. Why should I not say anything, what am I afraid of? I’m not afraid of them. One of the things most notable about us is how we work. You could not like the music, you can do anything you want, but we work and there’s no changing that fact. And all I want to do is what we agreed upon. And I’m not even bitter, people say labels are evil, no. They’re just lame. I can’t download my music from the Interscope website, because they gave that power away to iTunes.
Antiquiet: Sounds pretty backwards.
Josh Homme: Sounds like a bunch of fucking idots to me. Sounds like you don’t know your business at all. If we were selling shoes, it wouldn’t be like ‘you evil shoe selling fucks.’ It would be like, ‘how come you’re trying to sell shoes to cows?’ You know? I THINK OF INTERSCOPE AND ALL THESE LABELS AS THE BIGGEST FUCKING IDIOTS ON THE PLANET. And print that in capitals, because they can’t do anything to me. That’s the difference. The reason is because finally, for once, the fact that this is just their job and this is my life does a flip flop on them because they can’t stop me from being me and from playing, but they can lose their jobs and have to fucking work at Shakey’s pizza like they should’ve all along. I’m really sad for the days of the glorified groupie with the fucking hundred thousand dollar expense accounts. They’d drop bunches of bands before they would ever cut their expense accounts. And the fact of the matter is that everyone should play music because it’s such a beautiful gift. It’s my religion. But maybe not everyone should play it in front of me. It’s okay to play music in your rocking chair or whatever.
Okay, so it’s not the most coherent anti-label argument we’ve heard in 2007–iTunes customers are cows?–but you gotta respect the profane moxie. Other salient take-aways from the interview: emo is no good because there’s not “enough room for your cock and balls in your pants,” Homme is developing a “new steak cologne called Stologne,” and surprising no one, he’s a fan of Lee Marvin and Robert Mitchum but not Sly Stallone unless Kurt Russell is along for the ride.
Interscope Sucks My Dick [Antiquiet via Buzzgrinder]
