In a world where 6 ' 3" , red-haired rock gods rule, Queens Of The Stone Age frontman Joshua Homme is king. Era Vulgaris is the latest LP from the Californian rockers, and bugger if it isn't one hell of a record. Check out the exclusive chat with Josh in the latest issue of jmag , but here's a few leftovers that we couldn't squeeze into our pages…

How are you feeling about the record now that's done?
I don't even care if it's leaked basically, that's how I feel. The way I feel about it cannot be changed by somebody else, you know? I feel 100 per cent behind this record, more so than any other record ever.

You must be keen to start playing the new songs live?
Yeah, I leave Sunday. We're charging one dollar I think to get into three of our shows ? one in London, Berlin and Paris. I think the idea is for people to go as nuts as we are to play right now.

Do you get excited about people hearing it at long last?
It took five-and-a-half months scattered over 10 months basically, and so you'd think that in that time I would just get right sick of it, you know? But I still listen to it all the time. I try to make my favourite music that no one else made so I have to so it makes you excited for other people to hear it.

I really like ‘Into The Hollow': that's a very different song for you.
Yeah, that was one of the only songs I'd completed when we came in. I used to play it a little, then I played it a little harder and it just made more sense ? like, it's not soft and it's not hard.

In a recent interview you were talking about the overload of information in today's society, asking how can someone become a master of their craft with so much info constantly being thrown at people's faces all the time, so little attention being given to the growth of an artist.
I feel like this is our version of flinging it at you ? but it's still a journey of flinging it at you. One of the things that's important to me is not that I know the answer to how does someone do that… or maybe I do. And maybe what it is, is that you persevere and your shield becomes stronger. Maybe the answer is you learn to not give a fuck, because the same ability to be free of that barrage exists ?  it's just that everywhere we go now. I used to get the feeling that the world was like this buffet of people coming up to you saying, “Hey, how about this?" But now I feel like it's the New York Stock Exchange; people are just barrelling down on you. I didn't know the answer to that when we were making this, but I'm starting to feel that even the past couple of weeks that I do have a better understanding of what that takes. A little bit.

Do people tell you “yes” all the time now that your band is so successful? Is that one of the reasons why you keep people like Chris Goss around?
I think it's because we never accepted a “no” before! We don't allow anybody to kiss our ass ? that gives a feeling that's identifiable. A “yes” person gives a feeling that's identifiable, and that doesn't feel good, you know? Because I'm not here to be massaged like a veal; that has nothing to do with the process. So people in those situations disappear: not like, behind your back, but in front of your face. Either me or Joey or Troy will say: "This feels like shit because this guy is attached to my ass like a leech", right in front of the guy. I think in the past our refusal to give up has made other people give up a little bit.

So when are you guys coming back down here?
I want to come back before the Big Day Out, which I guess would be the spring for you.


See you then, Josh.