Josh Homme asked Mark Ronson to produce Queens of the Stone Ages’ new record because he cares about fans.
The American rockers are gearing up to release ‘Villains’ on August 25, and the 44-year-old frontman says he knew straight away that the ‘Uptown Funk’ hitmaker should help them after he shared a story about meeting a fan who was excited to hear the ‘No One Knows’ groups’ new music.
Asked by BBC 6 Music why he picked Ronson – who has worked with the likes of Amy Winehouse, Lily Allen and Bruno Mars – he explained: "The reason I asked Mark Ronson to do this is because he called me the other night and said … I was at a restaurant, he was a little bit tipsy, he was here in London and I was in the States and he goes I was just at this restaurant and this 19-year-old blonde kid was a bus boy and said I don’t want to get in trouble, but I am so excited to hear the Queens of Stone Age record, I loved the first song and then Ronson said come back here at the end of your meal and I will let you listen to something on my phone that no one has heard.
"He calls me and he goes and: ‘I did and he was so excited’. I just thought that is exactly why I asked you to do this because you are a music fan…"
Homme admires the 41-year-old songwriter for not limiting himself to working with one kind of artist or band.
He continued: "… And my whole career something has come up, whether it is to do a soundtrack or someone says, ‘OK you should do this thing because it’s rock’, insinuating that you can’t do anything else so don’t give him that. Here, why don’t you just sweep over here and keep yourself busy.
"I think everybody that likes music listens to whatever they think is good.
"They know when the time is right to hear something and I would love to be in a band that has music for all those moments for me as a fan. I felt like I made something for all those moments for me too.
"Mark has worked on all kinds of different stuff, buy you should.
"And if you do one thing, it doesn’t mean it is prohibitive to doing something else."
Josh Homme: Mark Ronson is a music fan
