Qotsa: Josh Homme, the illness that hit him in Italy last year

The Queens of the Stone Age have not climbed on a stage since last year, or from the Milanese date of 6 July to the I-Days (here our story). The one staged at the Snai San Siro racecourse was therefore the last public show of Josh Homme and memberswho then saw themselves forced to stop the tour for reasons related to the health of the frontman. An unspecified physical problem had already stopped the band a few days before the concert in Milan and after the Live in Rome, when he had canceled the concert at the Ama Festival. After almost a year, in the process of recovering the dates lost in 2024 and presenting the set recorded in the Catacombs of Paris, Homme is now to tell how it was in those days during the last tricolor passage of the Queens of the Stone Age.

Interviewed by the “Corriere della Sera”, the Qotsa frontman explained: “Our latest album is titled ‘In Times New Roman …’ and we wanted to come to play it in Italy at any cost, so the idea was to do the three Italian dates and then fly to Paris to record the live to the catacombs. I knew I was dangerously badly, but organizing underground filming had been so complex faded forever “. Remembering how he felt, Homme continued:

“Somewhere between Rome and Venice, before the concerts, I realized that I didn’t do it and I asked to be brought to the nearest hospital. But they wanted to keep me there, so my travel agent came to recover me: the time to take off the shirt and we left. I only did the Milan concert and the next day we flew to Paris. So much.

While close to the Milan date, rumors of a inguinal hernia spinned, the health problem that hit Josh Homme last year has never been officially revealed, which even in the recent interview prefers not to provide details. “I can say, however, that I have some wonderful scars, it seems that someone has tried to kill me and I am very proud of it”, he limited himself to saying the musician: “Apparently my life is made of experiences very close to death, but I would not like it to be different. I continue to repeat that I have never felt alive as the day I am almost dead, there at the catacombs”.

Next to recover the appointments of the tour postponed last year, the Queens of the Stone Age will return to Italy in concert on 15 July at the Pistoia Blues Festival and Wednesday 16 July at the Ama Music Festival in Romano d’Ezzelino (Vicenza).