Josh Homme Recalls Getting 'Destroyed' by Tom Waits

As the frontman of Queens of the Stone Age, Josh Homme has enjoyed the kind of success and longevity that most bands only dream of. Still, that doesn’t mean the singer has avoided humbling onstage moments, like the time his band had to perform after legendary singer-songwriter Tom Waits.

Homme recalled the incident during a recent appearance on the We Might Be Drunk podcast.

“We did the Bridge School Benefit,” the frontman recalled, referring to Neil Young’s long-running charity shows. “And you have to play acoustically. You can't play anything electric.”

“Tom Waits played before us,” Homme continued. “And it was like, ‘Oh God. What are we gonna do?’”

As Homme recalled it, Waits was captivating during his set in a way unlike any other artist. He kept things loose, mixed humor between his songs, and engaged the audience with his unique charm.

“He'd play a song that was f–ing amazing,” Homme remembered, “Then he’d wander over to the piano and go, ‘I'm only doing this because I owe Neil money.’ And he's doing jokes in between [the songs] and killing it.”

“It all looked like he was just improving the whole thing, but there's no f---ing way.”

'It Was Probably the Most We've Ever Been Destroyed by Another Artist'

Watching Waits' set, Homme knew there was no way Queens of the Stone Age could match the singer-songwriter's performance.

“He destroyed so hard,” Homme declared. “To play after Tom Waits… It was kind of like, you're destined to die. You know, there's no way out. I mean, it was probably the most we've ever been destroyed by another artist.”

Making matter worse, when Queens of the Stone Age took to the stage after Waits, the band immediately suffered an embarrassing moment.

“We walked out and we go 'One, two...' and there's one microphone over the drums. We go 'One, two...' and as soon as we start, I see the mic is falling over. And it just goes crash, and makes a super loud noise on the floor tom. So it's like, boom! It was such a terrible way to begin. You didn't even get to your four – one, two, boom, bam.”