Stoner-Rock Royalty

The Queens got that chance again when the band toured with Hole after Courtney Love and company defected from the ill-fated Marilyn Manson bill. "I'm pretty sure Courtney gave out at least one guitar or two to some girl in the audience every night. It was pretty wild," Oliveri says, laughing.

The bandmembers can leave the chaos of the road behind when they return to their desert home, where no one over thirty even knows who they are. "It's kind of cool to come back after a tour to a slow-moving place like Palm Desert," says Oliveri. "If you're not playing music here, you're not doing much."

Queen steam: Queens of the Stone Age hold court at a taco joint.

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More About

• Nick Oliveri
• Kyuss (Musical Group)
• Josh Homme
• Palm Desert
• Queens of the Stone Age

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So let Palm Springs and the neighboring counties ignore the contributions of Queens of the Stone Age and the trails the band has blazed in the field of stoner rock. Once all the desert geezers die off and will their orange and green golf jackets to thrift stores, maybe then the chamber of commerce will get around to erecting a plaque or something. After all, it took thirty years and a major motion picture before Lubbock, Texas, gave its most famous son, Buddy Holly, a bronze statue. A wooden cutout of Josh Homme in front of Blimpie's could take even longer.