Queens Of The Stone Age have reflected on landing “the hard job” of performing Glastonbury sets at the same time as Beyoncé and Elton John.
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The rock group have had the honour of playing the iconic festival numerous times over the years, including performing on The Other Stage at year’s instalment while John closed out the Pyramid Stage with a career-spanning set that was billed as his last-ever UK show.
Back in 2011, they were onstage at the same time as another massive booking, as Beyoncé headlined the Pyramid stage and became the first female artist in 20 years to do so.
Speaking to NME in a recent In Conversation interview, Josh Homme and Dean Fertita reflected on their “interesting experience” of performing as Glastonbury, “especially the last few times for us because they always ask us to do the hard job.”
“Other than driving the sewage truck, playing against Elton [this year] is one of the tougher jobs, as is playing against Beyoncé [2011],” said frontman Homme. “They were both tough gigs that were really fun, but tough because you don’t know when you walk out if anyone is going to be there. Quickly all that stuff just fades away and you have a good time. It’s Glasto at the end of the day and people are just there to participate. Escapism is really what we’re after.”
The band have a prior relationship with John, from having worked together for an unlikely collaboration on ‘Fairweather Friends’ from QOTSA’s 2013 album ‘Like Clockwork‘. The band also revealed that John played up to the competition between the two while backstage at Worthy Farm.
“He gave me a gentle kiss on the cheek and said, ‘Enjoy playing to all three people’, which I thought was amazing,” said Homme. “I laughed, but then when we walked out I thought, ‘Oh my god’. There was a lot of people, but normally there would probably be a lot more. It was an interesting thing to walk out to at first. That was some accurate shit right there, that was a good prediction.”
Homme immediately addressed the elephant in the room when he emerged onstage at the festival, joking to the crowd: “Hello Glastonbury, my name is Elton John.”
Elsewhere in their interview with NME, Homme reflected on the tribute show held for Taylor Hawkins in 2022 and his friendship with Dave Grohl.
They also described the process of completing ‘In Times New Roman’, their first record in nearly six years, which Homme said was a “sigh of a relief” to finish.
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