Josh Homme Says AC/DC’s Malcolm Young Inspired QOTSA’s Early Music

November 22, 2017

Josh Homme has tipped his hat to legendary AC/DC rhythm guitarist Malcolm Young, who passed away on Saturday at the age of 64.

In a new interview in the pages of Mojo (via NME), King Baby Duck credits the late Acca Dacca axeman with inspiring his guitar style in the early days of Queens Of The Stone Age.

Discussing the period before QOTSA’s first album, following his time in both Kyuss and the Screaming Trees, Homme admits he tried to imitate Malcolm’s percussive playing technique.

“I wanted to see what it was like when you just played one thing until you got lost in a trance,” the frontman explains. “One note is so much more difficult than 50. That’s what I learned in [the Screaming Trees] because I was playing rhythm. I was trying to play like Malcolm Young, trying to play a riff like a robot.”

Apparently, though, Homme’s whole “robot rock” style got destabilised after a soundman blew his mind by introducing him to the mechanical sounds of krautrock bands Neu! and Can, and innovative post-punks, Wire.

“I had the first Queens record written, this robotic trance stuff, and then my friend Hutch, our sound man who has turned me on to so much music… plays me Can, Neu!, Wire… I was like, ‘What?’ Really disheartened.”

Tributes have been pouring in for Malcolm Young since his death this week following a battle with dementia.

Absentee Acca Dacca frontman Brain Johnson has shared his grief, saying he “can’t believe” his friend is gone.

“We had such great times on the road. I was always aware that he was a genius on guitar, his riffs have become legend, as has he,” Johnson said.

While bands like Foo Fighters, Guns N’ Roses, King Gizzard And The Lizard Wizard and even Aussie kids entertainers The Wiggles honoured Mal with live AC/DC covers, while Rage is set to play AC/DC tunes in a long tribute this Friday night.