ON THIS DAY IN 1998 - MARK LANEGAN MISSED THE FIRST QUEENS RECORD WHILE IN LONG-TERM REHAB

ON THIS DAY IN 1998 — MARK LANEGAN MISSED THE FIRST QUEENS RECORD WHILE IN LONG-TERM REHAB 🎙️

When Queens of the Stone Age released their self-titled debut on September 22, 1998, the album might have featured another familiar voice. Josh Homme had asked Mark Lanegan to sing on the record — but Lanegan could not get there.

Their connection stretched back to the later days of Screaming Trees, when Homme joined the group as a touring guitarist. The two musicians got along, and Lanegan would eventually become an important recurring presence in the Queens story. But the timing of that first invitation could hardly have been worse. ⏳

Lanegan later explained that he was in long-term rehabilitation and was unable to leave to record. It was a missed collaboration, not evidence that he had formally been chosen as the band’s permanent frontman.

Homme moved forward with the album, handling its vocals as well as its guitar and bass parts, with former Kyuss member Alfredo Hernández on drums. 🎸 The result introduced the hypnotic repetition and tightly controlled riffs that would define the group’s early sound.

Yet Homme did not hear his performance as the work of someone completely comfortable behind the microphone. Years later, he said the debut still revealed his reluctance to become the singer — an apprehension he could hear preserved in the recordings. 💿

The story did not end there. Lanegan was available for the second Queens album, Rated R, and contributed vocals before continuing his association with the band on later records. 🔄

The debut therefore captures a remarkable turning point: Lanegan was absent, Homme stepped up, and the uncertain voice at the center of the record became inseparable from Queens of the Stone Age. Sometimes a defining sound begins with the person who could not make the session — and the person who reluctantly took the microphone. 🔥

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