Josh Homme Thinks Bands Who Don't Play The Hits Are 'C*nty'

Queens Of The Stone Age vocalist and Eagles Of Death Metal multi-instrumentalist Josh Homme has weighed in on acts who don’t play their biggest hits, calling them “a little bit c*nty.”

Artists not playing their biggest hits is just something that happens – Radiohead hadn’t played Let Down in ten years when they hit the road in 2016, while their most famous song, Creep, hadn’t been in setlists for seven years.

Radiohead aren’t the only ones who didn’t play the hits. Led Zeppelin refused to perform Stairway To Heaven, while Kurt Cobain was quoted as saying, “Before every song, I’d play the intro to ‘Smells Like Teen Spirit’ and then stop,” in the book Nirvana: The Chosen Rejects, via Ultimate Classic Rock. Dave Grohl recalled not playing the Foo Fighters’ track Big Me for years, and R.E.M. refused to perform Shiny Happy People or have it included on their 2003 Greatest Hits compilation album, In Time.

Josh Homme does not support those moves. Appearing on the Tuna On Toast With Stryker podcast, Homme addressed the move not to play the greatest hits, as transcribed by Blabbermouth, “I understand that I'm always going to play No One Knows because I still like playing that song, and that's something that, it's an agreement with the audience: ‘I assume that this is a part of coming here to see us, and here you go.’”

He added, “When there's bands that don't wanna play their big song or their big songs, I always think it's a little c*nty to do that. [Laughs] Acting like a song that a lot of people like is a burden is just a strange reaction to the gift that your fans have given you. Seems like an odd reaction.”

Earlier this year, Homme discussed recent health issues, including a cancer diagnosis, in an interview with Revolver.

The Emotion Sickness singer said he was diagnosed with cancer in 2022 but didn't give many details. However, Homme did inform Revolver that he underwent successful surgery to remove it, and he's still recovering.

“I never say it can’t get any worse. I never say that, and I wouldn’t advise it,” Homme began. “But I do say it can get better.

“Cancer is just the cherry on top of an interesting time period, you know? I’m extremely thankful that I’ll get through this, and I’ll look back at this as something that’s fucked up — but will have made me better. I’m cool with that.”

Queens Of The Stone Age released their latest album, In Times New Roman… on 16 June 2023. Homme and bandmates Troy Van Leeuwen, Dean Fertita, Michael Shuman and Jon Theodore, came together to create “the sound of a band creating the music its own members want to hear while giving the rest of us a sonic forum in which to congregate” on the new album. You can listen to the record here.