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Watch Josh Homme and Rob Delaney Discuss George Carlin, Having Kids, and Humility

Queens of the Stone Age frontman Josh Homme recently sat down with comedian Rob Delaney for a long conversation that’s equal parts humor and wisdom.

They began with a hypothetical Super Bowl halftime show: A Queens of the Stone Age duet with Beyonce, produced by Brian Eno.  Delaney then brought up aging and asked for advice on edging toward 70. “It’s all about arm’s length because that’s fairly close now,” the 44-year-old QOTSA singer said of being on the far side of 40. “I wouldn’t go back though.”

They discussed the timesuck of having three kids, which they each do. “It doesn’t change the fact that there’s three short people that want stuff,” Homme said. “It’s nuts and tiring. If someone has one kid and they say anything, ‘I’m like, ‘Hey, shut the fuck up.’”

Homme also talked about seeing George Carlin as a 9-year-old, during Carlin’s at Carnegie era. “It changed my life,” he said. “I think that was the first time I ever thought, ‘Oh, that was philosophy, but it’s funny. I mean it’s all philosophy, what you do.”

“Life is funny when it’s good,” he added. “But when it’s awful, it’s really funny.”

Later they spoke about Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale (about which Homme jokes, “God, if life could just be like that”), the current political climate, and the need for escapism.

“I think escapism is a really devalued commodity and that’s why we have ice cream parlors and arcades, so that you can go there and if someone talks politics or religion or this or that, you can go, shut the fuck up. It’s an ice cream parlor you asshole,” he said. “I don’t expect what I do to resonate with everyone. But it’s there if you need a set to turn a Monday into a Saturday, if you need to turn a noon into a midnight.”

The pair also talked about humility and Homme’s aversion to being a singer in a rock band. “I tried to find a singer. It’s hard. Like, will you make sounds with your face and do it here with us? It’s hard to find somebody,” Homme said. “I had to learn in front of everybody because there was no time. And that trial by fire I would liken it to doing stand up for the first time. Because you think you know what’s going on. But then you go up there and have to actually do it. That’s not easy.”

 

Homme also discussed his working relationship with Mark Ronson and the new QOTSA album. The record, announced in recent months, is titled Villains and hits the street August 25. The band is currently on tour across the world.

Watch the full interview, via Noisey, below.