Eagles of Death Metal

Eagles of Death Metal are a garage-rock duo from Palm Desert, California, who mix a love for classic rock with a tongue-in-cheek irreverence for its conventions. While other groups flaunt their sex-and-drugs attitude, Eagles of Death Metal lightly mock that ultra-macho mindset in their songs, playing up the cocksure riffs and leering innuendo. A side project for Queens of the Stone Age frontman Joshua Homme, Eagles of Death Metal don’t take their music too seriously, targeting fans who understand that rock ‘n’ roll is best enjoyed when it’s loud and vaguely ridiculous.Eagles of Death Metal are the product of Joshua Homme, leader of Queens of the Stone Age, and high school friend Jesse Hughes. Hughes is the principal songwriter for the band, with Homme supplying bass and drums. Eagles of Death Metal formed as part of Homme’s ongoing Desert Sessions project, a loose collection of material recorded with different collaborators. Eagles of Death Metal performed on The Desert Sessions, Volumes 3 & 4, which was released in 1998. Once Queens of the Stone Age began to take off commercially with albums like R, Homme became interested in pursuing Eagles in a more serious way.The group released their debut album in 2004 on the independent label Ant Acid Audio. Peace Love Death Metal featured 14 Hughes compositions and a cover of the Stealers Wheel song “Stuck in the Middle.” As opposed to the murky, mysterious stoner rock of Queens of the Stone Age, Eagles of Death Metal boasted a slinky, sultry sound perfect for a drag strip or a strip club. Hughes didn’t possess the demonic charisma of Homme, but his occasional falsetto was both intentionally hilarious and deeply awesome. Peace Love Death Metal mostly attracted the attention of Queens fans without making major mainstream inroads.Two years later, the band returned with Death by Sexy. As the goofy album title suggested, Hughes and Homme were still lampooning hard rock’s machismo overkill, most memorably on “I Gotta Feeling (Just Nineteen),” which somehow managed to be sexy and silly simultaneously. With less filler than its predecessor and a more focused approach, Death by Sexy still might have been pseudo-macho shtick, but Eagles of Death Metal elevated the one-joke bit through great hard rock songs. Though more of a cult band than a popular sensation, Eagles of Death Metal did see Death by Sexy break into the Billboard album chart.In October 2008, Eagles of Death Metal released Heart On, another merger of out-of-control libido and self-mocking good humor.

Current Lineup:

Joshua Homme – bass, drums
Jesse Hughes – vocals, guitar

Key Eagles of Death Metal Songs:

“Speaking in Tongues”
“I Want You So Hard (Boy’s Bad News)”
“Cherry Cola”
“I Gotta Feeling (Just Nineteen)”

Eagles of Death Metal Discography

Peace Love Death Metal (2004)
Death by Sexy (2006)
Heart On (2008)
Jesse Hughes, on the band’s attitude about female fans.
“The Eagles of Death Metal love beautiful ladies and ladies of all sorts. And because we give so much time and energy to them, sometimes they give us time and energy in return. It doesn’t suck, I’ll tell you that.”

Jesse Hughes, on the inspiration behind the band’s “sexy” sound.
“When I wrote Peace, Love and Death Metal, I was going through a really ugly divorce and I was kind of brokenhearted and I was really feeling unsexy. And I was totally isolated … I wanted to feel sexy, so I wrote songs that allowed me maximum posing potential in front of the mirror. I’d record them into my computer so I could sing along with them and pose and feel sexy.”

Jesse Hughes, on what makes real rock ‘n’ roll.
“Rock ‘n’ roll’s not about how amazing the bass solo is. Or hanging out with a bunch of white kids who can’t dance and haven’t taken a bath and stink of patchouli … Rock ‘n’ roll forgot about ladies. The sweet baby girls are what inspired rock ‘n’ roll in the first place.”

Eagles of Death Metal Trivia:

• The band members have assumed several nicknames. Jesse Hughes goes by “Boots Electric” and “J. Devil.” Joshua Homme has dubbed himself “Baby Duck” and “Carlo Von Sexron.”
• The band’s name came from a friend who was trying to convince Hughes and Homme that death metal was good music. To prove his point, this friend described a certain band as “the Eagles of death metal.”
• Peace Love Death Metal only took three days to record.