Josh Homme of Queens of the Stone Age Reveals 2022 Cancer Diagnosis

2023-06-13

Queens of the Stone Age black and white promo photo.

Josh Homme, cancer diagnosis news: Queens of the Stone Age frontman is in recovery – Story by Cat Badra, photo by Andreas Neumann

Queens of the Stone Age singer and guitarist Josh Homme says he’s recovering from cancer

Queens of the Stone Age are coming up on the release of their latest album, “In Times New Roman…,” due out this Friday (June 16). The album will mark their first studio record since 2017’s “Villains.”

In a new interview with Revolver, vocalist and guitarist Josh Homme got personal about the circumstances surrounding the album. He says that some personal issues caused the delay of the album’s release, including being diagnosed with cancer in 2022.

Homme and Distillers’ signer Brody Dalle got a divorce in 2019 after a 14-year marriage. The couple has three children together, which made the divorce complicated. Then, one year after the divorce, the pandemic shut the world down. That all came out in the recording sessions for “In Times New Roman…”

“I think this is the first time I didn’t want to make a record, but I was dealing with a lot of stuff in my personal life,” Homme said in the interview. “We recorded a lot of stuff. I think I was doing it because when I’m in trouble, this is what I do. This is where I go to get right.”

Homme also broke the news that he was diagnosed with cancer in 2022. He didn’t divulge what kind of cancer he had, though. The good news is that he underwent surgery to remove the cancer, and he’s recovering right now.

“I never say it can’t get any worse. I never say that, and I wouldn’t advise it,” he said. “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. There’s a lot of stuff I want to do. And there’s a lot of people I want to do that with.”

“I definitely had a serious case of emotion sickness. There were times I almost didn’t make it,” he added. “It’s okay for me to ruminate on that. It’s not okay to stay there, feel too sorry for myself. This has been the darkest four years of my life. But that’s okay, too. In the heartaches, my mistakes, these deaths and my own physical things I’m dealing with — even though all that has occurred and smashed my old life to pieces, those pieces I’ve been able to build into a ship that’s about to launch. I will float into my new life from all those pieces.”

For more on “In Times New Roman…” and to pre-order the set, go here. Queens of the Stone Age will also be touring in Europe in July and set off on a North American tour in early August. Listen to Queens of the Stone Age’s latest song, “Carnavoyeur,” here.

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Cat Badra

Meet the expert - Cat Badra is a music writer for Audio Ink Radio and a range of other music, sports and lifestyle publications. She's a graduate of Michigan State University with a master's degree in theater and speech. Contact her at cat@audioinkradio.com.