Mark Ronson working with Queens of the Stone Age was 'odd combination'

Queens of the Stone Age front man Josh Homme says having Mark Ronson produce their latest album Villains, was like having a sixth member in their band.

Ronson was brought in after Homme worked with him on Lady Gaga's album Joanne.

It may seem like an unlikely pairing but that is exactly why the QOTSA front man wanted to do it.

"I felt our combination was odd on paper and would demand that you have an open mind," he tells Newsbeat.

"Some people would have some preconceived notion that would be incorrect.

"But after working with Ronson on the Lady Gaga record I saw how much excitement and energy was coming from being a fan.

"How excited he was of the music he is working on and how much he threw himself into the music and that is what I like to do."

Mark Ronson was i nthe studio with the band from album rehearsals onwards

Mark Ronson is indeed a big fan of QOTSA, which made it harder for him to keep quiet on this project, which was a big secret.

"It is my favourite band," Mark explains, "So you are like 'I don't want to mess this up'.

"I bumped into some friends of mine who are big fans too, I kind of let it slip and they were like 'yeah I am real happy for you, you better not mess this up'."

He admits it was strange to be giving his opinion to a band that he has been shaped by musically.

"I am so influenced harmonically, melodically and rhythmically by this band and you are feeding this back to a band that you have learnt so much from."

The duo first worked together on Lady Gaga's album Joanne

While Villains is definitely not a pop album, you can hear Ronson's influence throughout.

And according to Homme, he was open to every suggestion the producer had.

"He would have these ideas that we would never normally do and I thought well why not check it out," he explains.

"It felt so good to say 'what would you do?' and to sit back and let it rip."

While you might think there would be plenty of rock and roll stories in the studio, they both confess it was very much about getting the record made.

Dave Ghrol also made an appearance during the making of the album

So much so, a very famous rock star got thrown out of the studio because he was too much of a distraction.

That man was Dave Grohl.

"Mark perhaps doesn't know the depths of my friendship with Dave," Homme tells Newsbeat.

"And Mark's job as a producer is to protect the act he is working with.

"But in comes, by any standard, a drunk Dave Grohl."

"He came in hot," laughs Ronson.

"Smiles ablazing," Homme adds.

But they needed to get some work done, so someone had to get Dave out. That's someone was Mark Ronson.

"I was like 'I am so sorry Dave and I know you have played on some of my favourite records of all time but I am going to have to ask you to leave the studio'.

"He got down in exaggerated motion on all fours, as if he was in army basic training and crawled out of the room."

You can watch Queens of the Stone Age performing at Reading Festival on iPlayer

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