This is one of the strangest and most unbelievable stories I’ve ever done on my channel.
I love Queens of the stone age but whoever thought this was a good idea, must have been
out of their minds. It came out over a decade ago that the band was supposed to play an
intimate show at a rehab clinic, but was thrown out even before they performed one full song.
Let’s explore what happened in today’s video.
Queens of the Stone Age arose from the ashes of stoner rock band Kyuss who i’ve done a whole video
on. The link is down below. Following his time in Kyuss, guitarist Josh Homme joined Screaming Trees
as a touring guitarist. Side note I’ve also done a whole video on Screaming Tree’s volatile career.
Again, the link is down below. Following his time in Screaming Trees, Homme would found a
new group called Gamma Ray, which would morph into Queens of the Stone Age in the late 90’s.
They’d go on to become one of the most successful rock acts of the last two decades. It came out in
2007 that Queens of the Stone Age would be booted from a rehab facility in Los Angeles after the
group was supposed to play an intimate 6 song set. A spokesperson for the band would tell NME
magazine that the band opened the show with their classic song ,Feel Good Hit of
the Summer from the group’s second album Rated R. The song’s lyrics consist of repeating lines about
substances, some legal and some illegal. The band doesn’t denounce or endorse the substance, but
rather leaves their stance neutral in the track. The rehab clinic’s staff was so angered they cut
the power during the band’s performance and had security throw the group out of the building.
The irony of this whole thing is that the song according to NME was used by the colorado Police
Department in their instructional videos to talk about the dangers of driving under the influence.
"Feel Good Hit of the Summer,"opened Queens of the Stone Age’s 2000 album Rated R
and was released as the second single from the record. The song reportedly came about after a
three day drug binge Homme went on to ring in the new millennium.He would reveal to Mojo magazine
inSeptember 2010: "Nick (Oliveri) and I had gone out to Joshua Tree just before New Years, 2000,
and stayed at a place called 29 Palms Inn. Out of that came 'Feel Good Hit Of The Summer' 'Feel
Good Hit' was such a great way to start that record. It said, 'Look out, here we come.'"
Chris Goss who worked extensively with Kyuss and was the producer for Rated R who told
Modern Guitars Magazine CG: Well, "Feel Good" was a number one single in Europe. They took
it exactly as it was; it was a joke. It's a really funny song. When we recorded that album,
that song was kind of like an after thought. Josh was just going to throw
a few seconds of that chant in at the end of the record. I said, "No, man. That rocks!"
And it ended up opening the record" he would recall. Unbeknownst to a lot of people
Rob Halford of Judas Priest also sang backing vocals on part of the song. When the lyrics
were supposedly shown to Halford he would recall "As a Rock And Roll cocktail, I know this one."
Rated R would get rave reviews with NME and Kerrang listing it as the best album of 2000.
Homme would reveal in several interviews that Feel Good Hit of the Summer was recorded and released
as a social experiment to see how the public and media would react to it. He would tell the
LA Times “How do people react when you say things that are uncomfortable? The song will be censored,
but there isn’t a single curse word in it. I just want to hang it out there and
leave it for the court of public opinion to decide.”In addition to that he would claim
the song was written to poke fun at the band’s stoner rock label telling Guitar World in 2006
["Feel Good Hit of the Summer"] might be like a knife in the neck of stoner rock. It's hard
to tell, and I think that's the good part about it. Look, you're always going to get labeled with
something. Stoner rock is kind of a dumbing-down label, and that's why I don't gravitate toward it
The band would also run into other trouble with the song. Due to the lyrical nature of the track,
many radio stations refused to play the single and it never charted in America.
Homme would tell Rolling Stone . "We're getting this feedback that lots of people won't even play
it,"They don't look at it in a very positive light." Some people would think that the band
was endorsing drugs, but if you look at the lyrics their not, but according to the book
Queens of the Stone Age No One Knows Homme wold admit he’s a libertarian when it comes to drugs.
In addition to radio stations, Wal-Mart refused to sell the album unless the song was removed.
However were able to talk walmart into stocking the album with the song as Homme argued that by
being titled Rated R, that served as enough of a warning to customers. Wal-mart would agree
and decided to carry the record. That does it for today's video guys thanks for watching. Be sure to
hit the like button and subscribe & we'll see you again on rock n' roll true stories. Take care.