NEED TO KNOW
Josh Homme reflected on his health leading up to — and after — the cancellation of Queens of the Stone Age’s 2024 tour.
In an interview with Consequence of Sound published on Wednesday, July 30, the band’s frontman revealed that he faced his mortality hours amid Queens of the Stone Age’s 20-year-long quest to record an intimate live set at the Catacombs in Paris in July 2024.
During the time at the Catacombs, the “Mosquito Song” group ended up recording their 2025 album Alive in the Catacombs.
“I couldn’t think about anything else but where we were,” Homme, 52, told the outlet. “It’s better that I was unwell, because I think if I was well, we would’ve maybe been more ‘California’ about it and thought ‘Man, it’s so cool to be here…’ And something about that kind of sucks.”
The rocker revealed that within roughly 20 hours of playing at the Catacombs, “he was being sedated and put under.”
“Then I spent the next seven months in bed,” Homme told the publication, adding: “I had a lot of time to think, you know? I was told I was gonna spend 18 months, two years there, so I was not excited.”
The “No One Knows” artist recalled being “in a very difficult physical spot” at the time, but was “really thankful” for it.
By December 2024, Homme felt more determined than ever to return to what he loved. “I felt like a rodeo bull leaning on the gate. It’s like, when you open this f—ing gate, I’m gonna run. I’m gonna run,” he said.
Elena Di Vincenzo/Archivio Elena Di Vincenzo/Mondadori Portfolio via Getty
In August 2024, Queens of the Stone Age announced the cancellation of all of their 2024 concerts on X due to Homme receiving “essential medical care.”
“QOTSA regret to announce the cancellation and/or postponement of all remaining 2024 shows. Josh has been given no choice but to prioritize his health and to receive essential medical care through the remainder of the year,” the band wrote at the time.
The announcement came just one month after the “Little Sister” outfit had to cancel its European tour dates so Homme could undergo emergency surgery “immediately.”
In a June 2023 interview, Homme revealed that he was diagnosed with cancer one year prior, but didn’t go much further into detail other than that he had a successful surgery to remove it.
“I never say it can’t get any worse. I never say that, and I wouldn’t advise it. But I do say it can get better,” he told Revolver Magazine.
Homme continued: “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 f—ed 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.”
Queens of the Stone Age’s Catacombs Tour will kick off on Oct. 2 in Chicago and wrap on Nov. 21 in New Orleans.
