One Flew Over the Eagle's Nest
The Eagles of Death Metal are the new best non-death metal band you've never heard.
By Erik Fong

"I can't come to the phone right now. I'm actually hiding in the bathroom because I just collected money for the second keg and I called the cops. Heh… eh…" [beep] – Jesse "The Devil" Hughes' Voicemail Greeting


Due to the recent success of the Queens of the Stone Age and the still-rising prominence of the many branches on its family tree, Blender named Palm Desert one of the top seven rock n' roll cities in America. Funnily enough, Jesse "The Devil" Hughes – one of the people that Blender named as a contributor to the Desert rock scene – doesn't even have an album out, much less a record deal. Yet.

All of the music executives in the world couldn't have orchestrated a buzz as great as the one that now surrounds Jesse's band, The Eagles of Death Metal. The only traces of the Eagles were buried in three tracks released on a rare vinyl, as well as a guest appearance on the drug-addled Palm Desert jam-session compilation, Desert Sessions 3 and 4. Since then, Queens frontman and longtime friend Josh Homme has kept Jesse's band in the press, answering the common interview question, "Who the hell are the Eagles of Death Metal?" by simply describing (and, in effect, glorifying) band founder Jesse as a National Rifle Association member who loves porn and crystal meth.

"We don't even have a record out," explains Jesse, "and when I was at the Warfield a couple of weeks ago when the Queens played, I had to run because people were yelling, 'That's J. Devil!' I walked up to Josh and I was like, 'What the fuck did you do with me? I can't even go get a piece of pizza.' I'm getting 300 fan e-mails a day from chicks sending me nude pictures.

"Josh Homme came and ruined my life with rock n' roll. I suddenly went from being a single father and video store clerk to a cock-swinging rock n' roller overnight, with tattoos and a new haircut and everything. You know, 'I need the rocker haircut #14 and those four tattoos and I'll be okay.'"

So with labels in a bidding war, tremendous buzz around a debut album that won't be out for three more months, an unconfirmed band lineup and a music video for an unreleased song that's already been banned by MTV, there's only one question left to answer.

Who the hell are the Eagles of Death Metal?



Eagles frontman Jesse Hughes has been friends with Josh Homme since grade school, when Jesse moved to Palm Desert in 1979 at the age of seven into a house right down the street from Josh, and quickly dove headfirst into an unglamorous lifestyle that all too eerily paralleled the classic '70s film Over the Edge. Soon, the Queens family tree began taking shape, and Jesse befriended Nick Oliveri (Queens bassist and Mondo Generator frontman). "I met Nick in fourth or fifth grade," reveals Jesse. "He's the real deal. He was too fucking cool for school – he was an outlaw, he was fucking crazy. Everyone kind of looked up to Nick because he did all the things that we wanted to do. I was quiet, almost a D&D nerd, and I didn't have the courage to defy my parents. But Nick would tell the teacher that he didn't have his homework because he stuffed it up his ass."

In high school, Jesse and Josh grew closer while playing on the same soccer team – a team that also included Brant Bjork (Mondo Generator, ex-Kyuss, ex-Fu Manchu). "We were all kind of the more brutal players on the team. I was the team captain for a while, so in a manner of speaking, you could even say we were rock n' roll jocks."

A University of South Carolina graduate and former journalist by day, Jesse reached a crossroads two years ago while knee-deep in the misery of an ugly divorce. "I didn't feel very sexy," confided Jesse, "and I wanted to feel sexy." Re-enter: Homme, who visited Jesse on one fateful New Year's Eve and, through a few pep talks and jam sessions, pulled his old friend out of the gutter and back onto the gluttonous path of sex, drugs and rock n' roll.

Jesse began writing songs for the Eagles of Death Metal debut, Peace, Love and Death Metal – due February 10, 2004 through Josh's Rekords Rekords label and Mike Patton's Ipecac Recordings – in order to deal with the struggles of his divorce. The recording session consisted of three days' worth of mostly one-takes, and without any money, time or confirmation as to who besides Jesse played on the album (but let's just say your first few wild guesses won't be too far off).

"When we were recording the album, it was a who's who of rock n' roll stars walking in and out," explains Jesse. "That scared me, man. That was hard for me at first. But I could see their faces, and it seemed to me that they were listening to something new. An excitement started with them – and then they're talking about it with everyone they know, and when rock n' rollers are talking about something with groupies and hangers-on, then it starts a rumor quick."

As tunes leaked over the Internet, whispered rumors became confirmed facts – and once the up-tempo, old school rock n' roll-flavored ass-shaking boogie "I Only Want You" made its way onto people's computers, the first fact about the Eagles of Death Metal was this: They're sure as hell not death metal.

While Josh has explained in the press that their band name came to be because they share an equal love for the Eagles and death metal, Jesse says that that explanation is just a philosophical justification in hindsight. In fact, Jesse's story behind the conception of the band name is quite comical: "We were in the back of a VW van, shit-faced and loaded. We'd just been in a bar, and some guy kept playing Poison and saying, 'This is death metal!' I finally said, 'Dude, this is the fucking Eagles of death metal.' Then we looked at each other and busted up laughing." Despite now swimming neck-deep in the tears of metal heads who expected corpse paint, BC Rich Warlocks and ominous whirlwinds of vile putrefaction, Jesse maintains that the most horrific music lies not in predictable imagery, but in the attitude – an uncompromising dedication to the corruption and deflowering of today's youth.

"The first rock n' roller ever was Little Richard with 'Tutti Frutti,'" says Jesse, "and that dude was fucking death metal. He showed up in a silk suit and scared the shit out of every person in America. I'm a huge collector of early '50s Public Service Announcements, and in them, all these actors are telling you to break your rock n' roll records because they're evil. And that's death metal – that's fuckin' scary shit. It was 'hide the women and the children,' and wow, it's Little Richard, so hide the boys too. Now, death metal is kabuki makeup and cookie monster vocals – and that ain't fuckin' scary."

You'll hear plenty of Little Richard influences in Peace, Love and Death Metal, mixed with the flamboyant swagger of the Rolling Stones, the sexual yowls of Prince and the pelvic thrusts of Kiss. "So Easy" could pass for an authentic Paul Stanley-penned tune, and "Miss Alissa" is a swift, skanky, bluesy rocker that would have surely earned Jesse a pitchfork stabbing had it been released in the '50s. Production-wise, the session was a weekender, so it's not glamorous – but the stripper-trance grooves and the attitude are just right.

In an unexpected surprise, "I Only Want You" entered the charts in Europe as an Internet Download track, and it eventually hit the radio in Europe as well… and the legend of Jesse "The Devil" continued to explode. He's even got the e-mails to prove it: "The German fans are sick. They just don't care. I'm getting 14 year-olds sending me e-mails that say, 'Do you like to fuck? We do out here in Germany and we'd love it if you'd come here and fuck us.'"

While Jesse won't be in Germany to gratify 14-year-olds any time soon, the Eagles of Death Metal will begin a short tour in mid-November – which includes a stop at Slim's in San Francisco on November 24 – featuring Tim van Hamel (Millionaire) and, of course, longtime friend Josh Homme rounding out the lineup.

As for the accuracy of Josh's describing Jesse as a gun-totin', porn-lovin', meth-huffin' son of a bitch? "Yes, I am very pro-gun," says Jesse. "As the saying goes, 'God made men and women, and Sam Colt made them equal.'" According to Jesse, the video for "Midnight Creeper" – in which he fantasizes about extracting revenge on his ex-wife – has already been banned by MTV.

And porn? "When you're the executive manager of a video distribution firm, you can sometimes end up with, oh, I don't know… 2,300 pornos. I love sex, man."

Then, of course, there's the meth (I hear you callin'). Actually, doctors would agree that speed is exactly what a supercharged nut like Jesse needs. "Chemically, I'm hyperactive," he explains, "and speed focuses me." At the age of 23, doctors put Jesse on Ritalin, and eventually, Dexatrine. And anyone who's heard the hazy, atmospheric sounds of any Desert Sessions album will agree that those sounds can't be achieved without a little bit of experimentation. "[Drugs] play a big factor [in the Desert Sessions]," says Jesse. "But drugs can make your music, or help you maintain a frame of mind for you to make music. I want to maintain a feeling – and I just want to stay awake."

Following the Eagles of Death Metal's short tour, Jesse's going to have fun staying busy until Peace, Love and Death Metal hits store shelves – but thanks to the growing buzz, he won't have to try too hard to find things to do. Not when there's a rock n' roll lifestyle to live, wild oats to sow and a growing cult myth to glorify. He's already built a respectable list of campfire-worthy groupie stories (hey, they don't call him "J. Huge" for nothing).

"Recently, I went home with this girl," says Jesse. "She has a boyfriend – a big boyfriend. We were bangin', and her boyfriend came home while I was washing my face in the bathroom. When we came out – I don't care what anyone says, but sex has an odor. That's what funk is. That's what my grandfather told me – in the Deep South, "funky" was the smell when you came in and thought your wife was with another dude. It smelled like sex, and unless you're a cold, icy son of a bitch like me, you can't really pull off getting busted. He pinned me up against the wall, and he was about to lift me off of my feet when I said, 'Honey, I'm gay!' Then he let go and said, 'Yeah… yeah, that's true. You must be.'"

But not all of his stories have happy endings: "Dueling groupies at the Colony Road Inn in Burbank tried to stick shit up my ass. One of them whipped out this very slender strap-on; it wasn't thick or big or shaped like a dick, it just looked like a point. She said, 'I heard you were kinky,' and I said, 'Yeah, but you didn't hear that I was stupid.'"

In between feigning homosexuality and taping "Do Not Enter" signs onto his ass, Jesse does what he can to interact with the growing cult of fans. "We have a corny clichéd kick of sending autographed pictures to people. And I hand-make shirts and send them to fans. To me, someone who's taking time out of their life to write a scumbag like me… needs some support. So I'll send them things, and now fans come up to me and give me handmade t-shirts and jackets. I've got a couple pairs of pants that I wear all the time that fans custom-fitted to my ass just by hanging out at a show and checking me out and eyeballing [my ass]."

Though Jesse's happy to be able to capitalize on the publicity that Blender gave the Palm Desert scene, his reference in the magazine wasn’t quite all peaches and cream. "They blatantly printed, for my mother and everyone to read, that I'm a speed freak and a porn head – after I asked the dude not to."

Oops. Were we not supposed to say anything about the crystal meth and the porn?

"Oh, you can. Cat's out of the bag, baby."