How Josh Homme’s Polka Lessons Shaped Queens Of The Stone Age

Should you like Queens of the Stone Age’s most commercially profitable track, it is advisable to thank polka for serving to make it occur.

A minimum of, that is what Josh Homme stated throughout a latest podcast look, the place he detailed his upbringing and what components of that affect the music he makes right this moment.

Josh Homme’s Polka Music Previous

Homme was a latest visitor on the Queer the Music podcast when host Jake Shears requested him about studying to play guitar. The 53-year-old musician stated the world round Palm Desert, Calif., the place he grew up had restricted choices when it got here to studying guitar.

“Within the desert, there wasn’t a number of guitar lecturers, apparently, or they did not actually search for anybody else,” Homme defined.

READ MORE: Queens of the Stone Age’s Josh Homme Has a Bizarre Pastime + Now Dave Grohl is Concerned

This led to music faculties bringing in lecturers from backgrounds that weren’t precisely aligned with these eager to be taught rock guitar. That’s how Homme got here beneath the instruction of polka musician Tom Polonsky.

“He was a polka guitar trainer, and polka was my authentic type of music.”

How Polka Influenced ‘No One Is aware of’

At the same time as he received older, polka nonetheless performed a job in Homme’s music, together with Queens of the Stone Age’s 2002 album, Songs for the Deaf.

Homme stated he was “grateful” to have realized from a polka guitarist as the teachings later helped form the sound of the massively common single, “No One Is aware of.”

“Should you take heed to ‘No One Is aware of,’ it goes boomp-boom, boomp-boom and that form of polka ‘and ah’ going ‘one and, two ah,’ this up, which can also be what reggae does.”

All of that affect got here from simply two years of polka guitar classes, too. Homme stated that polka sound is one thing he finds himself frequently going again to even when he is not attempting to.

“It is actually form of like consuming an excessive amount of garlic. It has actually stunk up my … it is permeated the whole lot I do.”

WATCH: Josh Homme on the ‘Queer the Music’ Podcast

When Josh Homme Realized Music Might Be ‘Scary’

Each Queens of the Stone Age’s music and their stage presentation have continued parts of horror via the years.

For instance, throughout The Catacombs Tour, which coated components of late 2025 and early 2026, Homme would carry out whereas swaying about with a meat cleaver in his hand. The band’s most up-to-date tour alongside the Foo Fighters has included photos of melting faces projected behind them onstage.

Homme attributes this side of his music to what his dad and mom selected to take heed to throughout his childhood.

“The Doorways had been the primary time I spotted music might be terrifying and scary.”

Homme particularly referred to as out the track “The Crystal Ship” from The Doorways’ 1967 self-titled debut, which he stated his dad and mom often listened to on cassette throughout household highway journeys.

“Within the case of realizing music (may be) terrifying, it is illuminating corners of an enormous area by candlelight. You are on this ghost form of thriller, displaying me how huge of an area music can occupy.”

Wish to affect your youngsters like Josh Homme’s dad and mom? Preserve studying for an inventory of important rock and steel albums to cross right down to your offspring.