Queens of Stone Age “R” turns 20 years old

Looking back at a release that turns 20 years old. Queens of the Stone Age “Restricted”  “R” was the record that pretty much paved the way for Josh Homme and crew to go from an indie hard rock band to a major force in music.

I was lucky enough to catch an in-store performance in New Jersey’s legendary vintage vinyl. QOTSA had just left the Ozzfest tour. Maybe they were kicked off I don’t think they really cared to be on that tour anyway. What I think was going on was Josh Nick and the band at that time weren’t too jazzed about the Fest vibe. That would probably come later when they were filling bigger venues.

 So I got wind that Vintage Vinyl was having an in store show to promote “R”.  At that time Queens of the Stone Age had  The Lost Art of Keeping a Secret as their only smash hit. The jocks and other douchers had not discovered them quite yet. There were probably 50 or under at the in-store performance. It was glorious because most in stores last about 10 minutes maybe 20 tops. You get Maybe 3 to 5 songs depending on the length of said tunes. The Queen’s played for at least 30 minutes maybe 40 and they seem to really dig it because they knew the people in store were their fans and not some Jenco wearing Nu metal kid with braids and glow sticks. The Ozzfest crowd probably didn’t understand what it is they’re doing … just yet if I may speak generally. I’m not usually an autograph guy but the line to meet these guys was really short so I went up to Josh I said hey thanks for making your music and representing the true rock. He smiled and signed the CD as seen in the photo. Nick and the drummer also signed it. I felt like I was privy to something really cool because the next record put them over the top. Restricted will always have a place in my faves. Even the horn outro LOL