QOTSA’S JOSH HOMME RAILS ON HIS RECORD LABEL: “INTERSCOPE SUCKS MY DICK”
Queens of the Stone Age frontman Josh Homme, never one to keep his mouth shut, went off on a tirade against his band’s label Interscope and chairman Jimmy Iovine in a recent interview with Antiquiet [via Idolator]:
Antiquiet: When more big bands get free of their contracts and start to do it their own way, how do you think the labels are going to react to losing their grip on what’s been their cash cow for so long?
Josh Homme: Fuck the labels man, they suck. The last thing they’re stripping down is their own expense accounts and shit. I mean, Jimmy Iovine of Interscope records takes a private jet or rides first class to tell a band they don’t get tour support. You know what I mean? Fuck that shit, I’m tired of it. And I’m not gonna be quiet because the American label, not Canada, not Europe, but our American label’s fucking us like crazy, so fuck them. Why should I not say anything, what am I afraid of? I’m not afraid of them. One of the things most notable about us is how we work. You could not like the music, you can do anything you want, but we work and there’s no changing that fact. And all I want to do is what we agreed upon. And I’m not even bitter, people say labels are evil, no. They’re just lame. I can’t download my music from the Interscope website, because they gave that power away to iTunes.
While the iTunes bit seems a bit of a misinformed rant, the bit about the expense accounts is so, so true. Homme continues, after being asked about Radiohead’s pay-as-you-wish campaign:
Antiquiet: It will be interesting to see what bands do beyond that. Trent Reznor and Saul Williams just did the same thing with Saul’s new album, and now that Trent’s free from Interscope, he’s bound to take it to the next level.
Josh Homme: That’s such a great example. Trent basically did what I’m doing. He was like ‘Interscope sucks my dick.’ ‘Cause they do. I know, cause I’m looking down at them right now. Even what they did was lame. They’re like, ‘Instead of doing a good job, we’ll let you go. And we get a little piece of what you’re doing ’cause we know you’ll work on it more passionately than we will, so we’d rather have a little piece of your passion than a big piece of our apathy.’ The fact of the matter is, they’re right. For the first time ever they’re admitting what they are: not a very good work force.
Antiquiet: The passion’s all at the bottom of the food chain.
Josh Homme: All the kids, like the girl that hooked us up with this interview probably does more work than Jimmy Iovine because she’s in the nuts and bolts of what goes on in Interscope. The underpaid, overworked section of Interscope. The interns and assistants and people that are starting out. I’m ranting because I know what I’m talking about. I’m also beyond pissed, as in not pissed, because I kinda figure they just don’t know better by now. It’s like when a dog shits in the house, you can hit ‘em with a paper but they really don’t know what the fuck happened. How can retarded kids know to not throw a Frisbee at the forehead of another retarded kid?
Wait a minute; did he just compare Jimmy Iovine to a retarded kid? Metaphors-gone-wrong aside, what he’s saying is true; the nincompoops at the top are so stuck in their old ways and cannot accept the fact that they are not entitled to huge expense account and super-salaries. It’s the new generation that knows what’s up. I may not have liked QOTSA’s recent release Era Vulgaris, but damn, I’m liking this guy more by the minute.
-VN
