Death Metal Eagle Flies Solo
Although his band Eagles of Death Metal are still racking up rave reviews for their debut album, Peace Love and Death Metal, singer/guitarist Jesse “The Devil” Hughes is already eyeing a solo album.
Titled Fabulous Weapons, the album came about after Hughes experienced a recent songwriting flurry prior to recording Eagles’ debut. “I don’t know how else to describe it, but it’s been like this, ‘Whoa, I can’t stop, and I wonder what the penalty’s going to be?'” he says. “I want to release it very limited and just see what people think. It’s more clearly guitar oriented; kind of a demonstration of my musicianship and my hillbilly tradition.”
While his fellow Eagles band mate (and Queens of the Stone Age leader), Josh Homme, does not appear on the recording, a few names that do will be quite familiar to fans of Palm Desert rock — former QOTSA member Nick Oliveri and Fatso Jetson’s Mario Lalli. “Nick’s on a track or two, Mario Lalli, and then I incarnated myself into eight different entities and played! So that was an experience – very ‘Cybil.'”
A release date has not been set for Weapons, but another solo Hughes recording will appear sooner, the two-track EP, A Pair of Queens.
“I was in a hotel room above the Cafe 101 in Hollywood, and a friend of mine was trying to convince me she hadn’t heard Queens [of the Stone Age]’s songs,” he says. “All I had was my little Roland VS880 recording device, a guitar, and a drum machine. So I recorded two songs [“Go With the Flow” and “Gonna Leave You”]. It’s proof that no matter how bad you suck, you cannot destroy a well-written song. It’s a clear ode to my friend Josh Homme, who is my guitar hero. I look up to him musically and I just wanted to say, ‘Man, you rule.’ It’s also a vanity spite, it’s ‘I’m owning your song!'”
With all this extracurricular activity, Hughes still plans to make time for the Eagles of Death Metal. He says a second record is already written — titles include “Prissy Prancin’,” “I Love Baby Duck,” “Poor Doggie,” “Magical Pants Parade,” “Sexy Moustache,” “Red Hair of Fire,” and “Magical Man” — and following the same path of their heroes, AC/DC, the Eagles of Death Metal’s next release won’t stray far from the sound of their debut. “I think when you develop a style, you need to stick with it,” Hughes says. “And I like it, it’s working for me. But it’s gonna advance. It’s time to step it up a bit.”