Who influenced Queens of the Stone Age, and what came after

Every connection with its receipt

Queens of the Stone Age grew out of the Palm Desert generator-party scene, where Josh Homme traded Kyuss's downtuned sludge for a leaner, trance-inducing "robot rock" built on repetition. The map below runs from the boogie and Krautrock pulses Homme openly borrows, through the desert peers and revolving-door collaborators who defined the Desert Sessions ethos, to the riff bands that followed.

The Kynda mix for Queens of the Stone Age

• Key Influence · Tres Hombres by ZZ Top (1973). Homme has repeatedly named ZZ Top's Texas boogie as the backbone of QOTSA's swing — greasy, economical riffs that groove rather than bludgeon. Billy Gibbons's tone and phrasing shaped the shuffle underneath songs like "Feel Good Hit of the Summer" and "Little Sister," and Gibbons eventually guested in Homme's orbit, guesting on the Desert Sessions and appearing alongside him in the documentary It Might Get Loud's wider guitar-hero lineage.
• Influencia Obscura · Tago Mago by Can (1971). Homme's much-quoted idea of "robot rock" — repetition as trance, drums that refuse to fill — comes straight from Krautrock, with Can the most frequently invoked touchstone. Jaki Liebezeit's inhuman consistency is audible in the locked grooves of "Song for the Dead" and "Someone's in the Wolf." The band's willingness to ride one figure for minutes rather than resolve it is a Cologne inheritance, not an American rock one.
• Local Roots · Rock Formations by Yawning Man (2005). Yawning Man were the house band of the Palm Desert generator parties that Homme attended as a teenager, their reverb-soaked desert instrumentals predating and directly shaping Kyuss and QOTSA. Kyuss covered their "Catamaran," and Homme has credited guitarist Gary Arce's open, atmospheric playing with teaching the local scene that heaviness could be spacious. This long-delayed debut documents the sound the desert made before anyone recorded it.
• Beyond the Medium · Trans-Europe Express by Kraftwerk (1977). When Homme talks about QOTSA as "robot rock," Kraftwerk is the implied ideal: music that keeps perfect time and feels sexy rather than cold. The band's refusal of fills, their stacked repeating sequences, and the deadpan vocal delivery on tracks like "Feel Good Hit of the Summer" all read as rock musicians applying Düsseldorf electronic discipline to distorted guitars — a translation across tradition rather than genre borrowing.
• Peer · Stoner Witch by Melvins (1994). Buzz Osborne's band were the sludge elders of the Pacific scene Homme grew up admiring, and the two camps have overlapped for decades — the Melvins' glacial riff logic and perverse sense of humor are close cousins to QOTSA's. Dale Crover's drumming set a standard Homme has praised, and the Melvins' refusal to repeat an album's formula models the restless, lineup-shuffling approach QOTSA adopted from the start.
• From the Canon · Rated R by Queens of the Stone Age (2000). The album where the method crystallized: Nick Oliveri's bass and screams, Mark Lanegan's first vocal appearances, and a willingness to put a drug inventory and a saxophone on the same record. It establishes the band's core trick of pairing hypnotic repetition with pop melody, and announces the revolving-cast philosophy Homme borrowed from his Desert Sessions, where QOTSA is less a lineup than a rotating workshop.
• Key Collaborator · Bubblegum by Mark Lanegan (2004). The former Screaming Trees singer became QOTSA's recurring second voice from Rated R onward, touring as a full member and supplying the gravel counterweight to Homme's croon. Bubblegum returns the favor: Homme, Nick Oliveri and Dave Grohl all contribute, making it effectively a QOTSA-adjacent record under Lanegan's name and the best document of a partnership that ran from the Desert Sessions through Songs for the Deaf.
• Legacy · Royal Blood (2014). Mike Kerr and Ben Thatcher have consistently named QOTSA as the model for a riff band built on groove and restraint rather than volume, and their bass-as-guitar attack descends directly from Homme's economical, rhythm-first writing. Homme publicly championed the duo early, and they opened for QOTSA — a torch-passing that made the lineage from Rated R's locked grooves to modern British riff rock explicit.

What influenced Queens of the Stone Age

• Blue Cheer. The article reports Rolling Stone's comparison of the band's sound with Blue Cheer. “Rolling Stone magazine also noted a "connection between American meat-and-potatoes macho rock of the early 1970s, like Blue Cheer and Grand Funk Railroad , and the precision-timing drones in German rock of the same period."” (Wikipedia)
• Tres Hombres by ZZ Top (1973) “The album featured guests including ZZ Top's Billy Gibbons.” (en.wikipedia.org)
• Brothers Grimm. The article attributes the album's Brothers Grimm-inspired imagery to Homme's description. (via Lullabies to Paralyze) “Homme has called Lullabies to Paralyze a "dark" album, which includes imagery inspired by The Brothers Grimm folk and fairy tales .” (Wikipedia)
• Paranoid by Black Sabbath (1970) (musicbrainz.org)
• Psychocandy by The Jesus and Mary Chain (1985) (musicbrainz.org)
• Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas by Hunter S. Thompson (1971) (openlibrary.org)
• Neu! by Neu! (1972) (musicbrainz.org)
• The Devil's Rejects by Rob Zombie (2005) (themoviedb.org)
• Tago Mago by Can (1971) (musicbrainz.org)
• Grand Funk Railroad. The article reports Rolling Stone's comparison of the band's sound with Grand Funk Railroad.
• Trans-Europe Express by Kraftwerk

Peers and kindred spirits

• Chris Goss. Goss contributed to the band's debut album. (also via Rated R) “Homme played guitar and bass on the album (the latter credited to Homme's alter-ego Carlo Von Sexron), Alfredo Hernández on drums, and several other contributions by Chris Goss and Hutch.” (Wikipedia)
• Hiro Murai. Murai directed the Queens of the Stone Age video for “Smooth Sailing.” “Queens of the Stone Age have shared the video for "Smooth Sailing", from 2013's Like Clockwork . It's directed by Hiro Murai” (Pitchfork)
• Mark Lanegan. Lanegan contributed to Rated R. (via Rated R, Bubblegum) “Released in 2000, Rated R featured a myriad of musicians familiar with Homme and Oliveri's work and "crew" of sorts: former Screaming Trees vocalist Mark Lanegan” (Wikipedia)
• Sarah Silverman. Silverman appeared in material accompanying the band's album. “Silverman played a therapist in a skit for a bonus DVD of the album Lullabies to Paralyze by the band Queens of the Stone Age .” (Wikipedia)
• Jack Black. Black contributed stomps and claps to a Queens of the Stone Age song. “He lent his musical abilities to the Queens of the Stone Age song "Burn the Witch" with rhythmic stomps and claps.” (Wikipedia)
• Palm Desert Scene. The band originated in the Palm Desert music scene. “Formed after the dissolution of Homme's previous band Kyuss , the band originated from the spread of the Palm Desert music scene .” (Wikipedia)
• Matt Berry. Berry played organ as a guest of Queens of the Stone Age. “On 29 October 2025 he made a guest appearance playing the organ for Queens of the Stone Age on their Catacombs Tour at Royal Albert Hall .” (Wikipedia)
• Anthony Bourdain: No Reservations. The band appeared on No Reservations several times. “He featured contemporary band Queens of the Stone Age on No Reservations several times, and they composed and performed the theme song for Parts Unknown .” (Wikipedia)
• Cocaine Rodeo by Mondo Generator (2000) “The album wouldn't be released until three years later due to Oliveri and Homme being full-time members of Queens of the Stone Age.” (en.wikipedia.org)
• The Doors by Oliver Stone (1991). The band and its guests performed covers of Doors songs. “They were joined on stage by Shneider's husband Alain Johannes, Tenacious D , Matt Cameron , Brody Dalle , Jesse Hughes , Chris Goss, and PJ Harvey , playing a variety of QOTSA and non-QOTSA songs, including covers of songs from bands su…” (Wikipedia)
• The Colour and the Shape by Foo Fighters (1997) “The success of the record also earned the band notable opening slots with The Smashing Pumpkins, Foo Fighters, Hole, and a place at Ozzfest 2000.” (en.wikipedia.org)
• Cage the Elephant (2006). Shultz recalls touring Canada with Queens of the Stone Age. “The very first major tour that we had done was with Queens of the Stone Age and it was from Toronto all the way to Vancouver” (519 Magazine)
• Cream. The band and its guests performed covers of Cream songs. “They were joined on stage by Shneider's husband Alain Johannes, Tenacious D , Matt Cameron , Brody Dalle , Jesse Hughes , Chris Goss, and PJ Harvey , playing a variety of QOTSA and non-QOTSA songs, including covers of songs from bands su…” (Wikipedia)
• Alfredo Hernández. Hernández played drums on the band's debut album. “Its self-titled debut album (1998) was recorded with Homme singing and playing all instruments except drums, which were provided by former Kyuss member Alfredo Hernández .” (Wikipedia)
• Anthony Bourdain: Parts Unknown. Queens of the Stone Age composed and performed the show's theme song. “He featured contemporary band Queens of the Stone Age on No Reservations several times, and they composed and performed the theme song for Parts Unknown .” (Wikipedia)
• Welcome to Sky Valley by Kyuss (1994) “Formed after the dissolution of Homme's previous band Kyuss, the band originated from the spread of the Palm Desert music scene.” (en.wikipedia.org)
• Josh Homme. Homme founded Queens of the Stone Age. “The band was founded by vocalist and guitarist Josh Homme shortly before he returned to his native Palm Desert, California .” (Wikipedia)
• Dave Grohl (1969). Grohl recorded drums for Songs for the Deaf. (via Songs for the Deaf) “Dave Grohl , Foo Fighters frontman and former Nirvana drummer, joined in late 2001 to record drums for the band's third album, Songs for the Deaf .” (Wikipedia)
• Jake Shears. Shears was announced as a collaborator on the album. (via ...Like Clockwork) “A number of collaborations from different musicians were announced for ... Like Clockwork , including Nine Inch Nails frontman Trent Reznor, [ 64 ] Scissor Sisters frontman Jake Shears , [ 65 ] Brody Dalle, [ 62 ] and Elton John .” (Wikipedia)
• Billy Gibbons. Gibbons appeared on Lullabies to Paralyze. (via Lullabies to Paralyze) “The album featured guests including ZZ Top 's Billy Gibbons .” (Wikipedia)
• James Lavelle. Lavelle was announced as a guest on the album. (via ...Like Clockwork) “A press release, issued by Matador at 9:00am EST on March 26, 2013, revealed further details of the album, including further guest appearances: Alex Turner of Arctic Monkeys and UNKLE 's James Lavelle .” (Wikipedia)
• Nick Oliveri. Oliveri contributed backing vocals to the album. (via ...Like Clockwork) “Oliveri later contributed to Queens of the Stone Age for the first time in nine years, contributing backing vocals to the band's sixth album, ...Like Clockwork .” (Wikipedia)
• Trent Reznor (1965). Reznor was announced as a collaborator on the album. (via ...Like Clockwork) “A number of collaborations from different musicians were announced for ... Like Clockwork , including Nine Inch Nails frontman Trent Reznor, [ 64 ] Scissor Sisters frontman Jake Shears , [ 65 ] Brody Dalle, [ 62 ] and Elton John .” (Wikipedia)
• Alex Turner. Turner was announced as a guest on the album. (via ...Like Clockwork) “A press release, issued by Matador at 9:00am EST on March 26, 2013, revealed further details of the album, including further guest appearances: Alex Turner of Arctic Monkeys and UNKLE 's James Lavelle .” (Wikipedia)
• Elton John (1962). Elton John was announced as a collaborator on the album. (via ...Like Clockwork) “A number of collaborations from different musicians were announced for ... Like Clockwork , including Nine Inch Nails frontman Trent Reznor, [ 64 ] Scissor Sisters frontman Jake Shears , [ 65 ] Brody Dalle, [ 62 ] and Elton John .” (Wikipedia)
• Iggy Pop (via Songs for the Deaf) “Josh Homme and Dean Fertita contributed to Iggy Pop's 2016 album Post Pop Depression and subsequent tour, while Troy van Leeuwen joined the rock supergroup Gone Is Gone with plans to release an EP and a studio album.” (en.wikipedia.org)
• Alain Johannes. Johannes helped record Lullabies to Paralyze. (via Lullabies to Paralyze) “In late 2004, Homme, along with Eleven multi-instrumentalist Alain Johannes and remaining band members Van Leeuwen and Castillo recorded the Queens' fourth studio album, Lullabies to Paralyze” (Wikipedia)
• Bubblegum by Mark Lanegan (2004) “The band's second studio album, Rated R (2000), featured Mark Lanegan as a guest vocalist and was the band's major label debut with Interscope Records.” (en.wikipedia.org)
• Spark by Eleven (1994) “=== 2004–2006: Lullabies to Paralyze === In late 2004, Homme, along with Eleven multi-instrumentalist Alain Johannes and remaining band members Van Leeuwen and Castillo recorded the Queens' fourth studio album, Lullabies to Paralyze, a t…” (en.wikipedia.org)
• In Search Of... by Fu Manchu (1996) “The band made a fully-billed, proto-lineup festival appearance at the legendary punk venue CBGB in New York City as part of the CMJ '97 Post Embryonic Bash, sharing a seven-band showcase bill with Monster Magnet, Unsane, Barkmarket, Fu M…” (en.wikipedia.org)
• Rock Formations by Yawning Man (2005) (musicbrainz.org)
• Stoner Witch by Melvins (1994) (musicbrainz.org)
• the Strokes (via ...Like Clockwork) “Several sites reported that the album would include many guest vocalists, including Trent Reznor from Nine Inch Nails, Julian Casablancas from The Strokes, Mark Lanegan, Billy Gibbons of ZZ Top, and deceased humorist Erma Bombeck.” (en.wikipedia.org)
• Orange by Jon Spencer Blues Explosion (1994)

Who Queens of the Stone Age influenced

• AM by Arctic Monkeys (2013) “A press release, issued by Matador at 9:00am EST on March 26, 2013, revealed further details of the album, including further guest appearances: Alex Turner of Arctic Monkeys and UNKLE's James Lavelle.” (en.wikipedia.org)
• Royal Blood by Royal Blood (2014) “In May 2018, Royal Blood went on a headlining US tour in continued support of their second album, which included more acts alongside Queens of the Stone Age.” (en.wikipedia.org)
• Barely Standing by Dead Sara (2012)