Josh Homme Explains Dave Grohl’s Drumming to Rick Beato

Josh Homme has played with Dave Grohl often enough to describe him in specifics rather than adjectives. In a new conversation with Rick Beato, the Queens of the Stone Age frontman talked about Grohl, who guests on the band’s ninth album, a nine-track record due October 30.

“He’s so easy to play with, it’s kind of, it’s so easy that it’s really addictive,” Homme said. Play him a riff, and he returns it on the drums before building something on top: a counter-melody he described as a harmony being beaten out of the kit.

The more revealing observation is technical. Homme points to a uniform hardness in Grohl’s playing, a floor tom as loud as a snare, and the same consistency when he plays quietly. “There’s this sonic consistency across all boundaries,” he said. That is a description of control rather than force, and it goes some way to explaining why his parts settle so easily against whatever is placed in front of them.

Homme also admitted he enjoys pushing Grohl toward frustration, proposing parts and combinations until something gives. The conversation moved through other territory as well, including the erosion of regional scenes in the US, the volume of Songs For The Deaf, and how Homme arrives at his guitar tone.

The album lands October 30, which gives the exchange a present tense rather than a nostalgic one.