Eagles of Death Metal -putting the sexy back inrock...

Thu 15th Mar, 2007 in Features

“It was like I’d bought a ticket to the rock ‘n’ roll lottery and won the fucking prize.”

It’s no surprise that the first concert that Eagles of Death Metal frontman Jesse Hughes attended was Kiss. At the ripe old age of six, Hughes’ Dad dragged him along to see the face painted warriors of rock – and a young Jesse was hooked by the rock ‘n’ roll bug – completely enamoured with the onstage antics of the band.

What does surprise however is that Hughes never planned on being a muso – he had a far loftier career in mind.  “I wanted to be involved in politics,” drawls Jesse, “or be a political journalist – I never had any musical ambitions.”

Despite the fact that his dad was a muso? “Because of that,” chuckles Hughes. “My mother was really anti me becoming a musician when I was growing up. I think she just didn’t want me to fall into the same pit as him… So she never encouraged it – but music was always really involved in my life.”

So how is it that he came to be the lead singer of one of the rocking-est bands to grace a stage, you may well ask?

Hughes’ explanation is lengthy… but it’s a familiar refrain – far from being the devil’s music – rock ‘n’ roll was his saviour.

“I had a pretty healthy drug habit at the time,” recalls Hughes. “I was basically holed up feeling pretty sorry for myself doing large quantities of drugs… And my best friend Joshua Hommes (Kyuss, Queens of the Stone Age) broke into my home one day and sobered me up and basically rescued me.  

“I’d written the first song for Eagles of Death Metal at that stage and Josh basically came in picked me back up and drove me to Hollywood and we started playing – and ended up recording the rest of the songs on the album in the next week.

“It was like I’d bought a ticket to the rock ‘n’ roll lottery and won the fucking prize.”

“I think you can measure the mettle of a person by how they react in extreme duress,” finishes Hughes “and fortunately for me I’ve been at the hand of my best friend Joshua Hommes…”

The first Eagles of Death Metal album (Peace Love Death Metal) was a huge success for the band, delivering a number of killer singles such as I Only Want You as well as garnering the band critical praise and a legion of fans. Advertisers fell in love with the tracks and several songs were used in American TV commercials including those for Nissan, Budweiser and Pontiac. A song even featured in the trailer for the indie flick Thank You for Smoking.

For Hughes the instant success was gratifying – but not without consequences: “I’d only been playing guitar for a brief time and really realised my limitations,” he confesses. “So it really became a monster of the will – I really had to get in there and start practicing to bring myself up to scratch.”

Not that he minds doing the hard yards:

“I was raised by the finest women ever known and they would say ‘only an asshole doesn’t appreciate what they’re getting’. And I’m getting to do the greatest job in the world, I’m up on stage shakin my dick and loving it… I’ve always said if I was a fire and someone came along and pissed on my party I’d say thank you – and that’s what I say now…”

In previous interviews Hughes has called Little Richard the inspiration for Eagles of Death Metal and he continues to sing his praises.

“He’s quintessential to the EODM sound,” begins Hughes. “I mean c’mon nothing’s more ‘Death Metal’ than Little Richard. I mean c’mon – he’s in a pink suit rocking out singing Tutti Fruity... nothing could be more ‘Death Metal’ than that.”

“There’s a lot of devil in that music,” he laughs before adopting a sombre tone, “I believe in the devil. In that I believe in the good Lord – and music like that – in the heart of night – music inspiring you to fornicate and booze and be a bad boy it’s definitely not sponsored by the good lord…”

So why does he make such down and dirty bluesy bad boy rock n roll then?

“I think I make music cause it’s an expression of pure joy, I’m no different to Chuck Berry or Little Richard or any of those core of heroes – they all made music from a place of joy.”

So he’d like to be in the Hall of Fame one day?

“Sure I hope to be a part of the great pantheon of rock’, to borrow the words of Malcom Young.”

With songs like I Only Want You and Death By Sexy kicking the airwaves there’s no doubt Hughes and EODM are certainly contenders. Apart from Little Richard then, and the pure joy of making music what inspires Hughes?

“The way I write EODM songs I write songs for the maximum number of rock poses and it all combines from there.”

He’s joking – but not… Hughes is refreshingly without ego when it comes to his singing and his band – Eagles of Death Metal has brought him a surprising success and he’s riding the wave all the way to the shore – a big grin plastered on his moustached mouth. Speaking of which, what the hell was the inspiration for that giant mo?

“Doc Holiday,” he says “he was one of my heroes when I was growing up (we embark on a brief argument about Val Kilmer’s performance in Tombstone - he’s for, I’m against) and Magnum PI now that was a great moustache and Freddy Mercury – though this is not a Freddy tickler if you know what I mean…”

With his Australian tour dates just days away, Hughes promises fans are in for one hell of a show. “We’re chomping at the bit to play,” he says “when this whole thing started, Australia was one of the places we really wanted to go to – you guys really jumped on board.”

He believes Aussie fans were so quick to embrace the band as Aussies have ”always had a healthy obsession with rock n roll”...

“C’mon,” he finishes – “you had one of the all time best rock bands in the world – I’m talking about AC/DC – why wouldn’t we wanna play for you? You know when someone’s talking the talk and when to tell the bullshit to walk…”

For full coverage of the Eagles of Death Metal click here