Josh Homme has recalled the time he was upstaged by Florence Welch on their cover of Johnny Cash and June Carter’s ‘Jackson’.
The Queens Of The Stone Age frontman joined Welch for the song during the recording of her MTV Unplugged performance in New York City in December 2011, a show that also saw Welch cover Otis Redding’s ‘Try A Little Tenderness’.
Now, Homme has reflected on the memory of that night in an interview with Nick Grimshaw for the BBC’s Sidetracked podcast.
“You know, I’ve known Flo for many, many years, and sang with Flo on MTV Unplugged, he began. “We sung the June Carter and Johnny Cash song ‘Jackson’.”
“There’s really only one way to sing it from the male perspective. We came into rehearsal and I’m like, ‘We got married in a fever’. I’m doing what you do. And then she sang, and I was like, ‘The fuck are you doing?!’”
“She belted this thing and it was an alternate melody and I was like, ‘Oh my god, what have you asked me here to do?’ Because you don’t want to be the B in an AB comparison. So, I had to find a way to hang on to the bottom of her dress and be elevated to the moon with her vocal abilities. And I must say, if I’m honest, I didn’t make it.”
Watch the performance here:
QOTSA are topping the bill at Victorious Festival in Portsmouth this weekend, before two huge outdoor shows at Rock N Roll Circus in Sheffield next week.
Homme recently spoke about his plans while in Sheffield: “I really just want to go to all the Arctic Monkeys guys’ childhood homes and take pictures and then send it to them,” he said. “So, that’s what I intend on doing. And it was like, ‘What’s the best way to do this?’”
Queen Of The Stone Age released their eighth and latest album, ‘In Times New Roman’, in 2023. Earlier this summer, they shared a new concert film titled Alive In The Catacombs. The project earned a four-star review from NME, who hailed it as “moving and meditative”.
The movie was screened in cinemas across the globe, and the group have dropped a vinyl and audio release of the unique show. Queens have also confirmed an intimate 2025 UK and European leg of ‘The Catacombs Tour’ for this autumn, featuring a show at London’s historic Royal Albert Hall.
Find any remaining tickets for Queens Of The Stone Age’s upcoming Sheffield and London dates here.
Florence + The Machine, meanwhile, will release their sixth studio record ‘Everybody Scream’ on October 31 and they have shared the epic title track.
The album contains contributions from IDLES’ Mark Bowen, Mitski, and The National’s Aaron Dessner – all of whom worked with Welch on the title track, too.
