I've always considered myself a workaholic... The way I work, I have to turn myself upside down and hang myself by my ankles and wring myself out like a wet sweater, and I have to do that with other people, too, because I think that's where something good comes out.
Sometimes you actually get caught in the web of things where people are talking about... what kind of breakfast cereal you like.
Really the topic of breakfast cereal is generally a very boring one.
When it's time to make music, that's about getting lost for me. To be a control freak is not half as good as being a freak who's casually in control. You're feeling around in the dark for something that feels good.
I have this coat that I got in a nefarious deal years ago. It's a Johnny Carson coat, and I've had it remade three times. It's mine all the time. Carson was a real man, and I thought, 'Coats for real men by real men? I'm in.'
I've worked at a deli, I've worked construction, I've worked a few different jobs.
I asked my friend Greg Andersson to introduce me to people that can distribute my album.
All I really care about is that I'm being honest and I'm real and I'm coming from a real place. There's a part of me that's a total cad and a part of me that's also a family man.
I think people get fixated on the example of an idea.
By the time you get to your sixth record, some of the benefits of being in a band are grander than ever, but some of the obstacles are just massive. You deal with these lateral subjects, and all that is left is the elephant in the room.
Guitar solos, to me, should be a really articulate way to make fun of guitar solos.
The first record I bought was a Carl Perkins record, because I saw him at The Festival at Sandpoint, Idaho. I loved Elvis and I found out that he wrote 'Blue Suede Shoes'... so connecting that experience of going to see him play was pretty awesome. That's when I realised I wanted to play guitar.
I like to move forward and notice things along the roadside that indicate where I should go.
I'm in three bands, and I love to produce records of other bands, and I have a family that I love. I wanted to be everything for everybody and do all of that... I think I just really beat myself up until I got really sick and needed surgery, because it was physically manifesting itself.
I think I learned years ago when I went to Hawaii that you don't bring puka shells back. You've got to be careful of your vacation purchases.
The problem is that music is selfish in that you need to make it for yourself, so that you can give it away, and those two things don't jive. I needed to find the right reason to play that had the magic and mystery and excitement that made me want to play in the first place.
I like to keep my feet on the sidewalk.
The expression of this idea is Queens of the Stone Age, but the idea is that you will never slack on the music and will always humble yourself at the alter of Rock.
I look at my career as a body of work, not just Queens of the Stone Age records. I'm in Eagles of Death Metal, I'm in Them Crooked Vultures; I make records with other people.
I'm a fairly upbeat and happy guy, you know? I don't like people that feel sorry for themselves, and I traditionally stay away from people like that.
