queen of the stone age

On the phone in a New York City hotel room, Homme said he didn't know what he wanted to say when he started the record. For the first two months the band was in the studio, the members didn't tell the record label.

"The best thing is to have the chance to fail," Homme said, without worrying about anybody else listening.

"We took the opportunity to try falling and crawling on our hands and knees and looked for something cool to play," he said.

The result was the realization that his generation was "trippy" and "Era Vulgaris" is an album injected with 11 infectious songs that sound more '70s-influenced than the band's previous work.

"It's like the happy flu," he joked. "Or the happy Ebola virus."

He said making the album in the trial-and-error manner required constant assessment.

"But we made it through the rain, as Barry Manilow said," Homme quipped.

Lyrics are always hardest for him when writing, he said, but he was fortunate to have a particularly fruitful weekend while making the album.

"The rock god smiled down on me from Fresno," he said.

Fresno? What about Bakersfield?

He said the rock god could be there too, because it's another place nobody would look for the divine spirit.

The band, known for collaborating with a mix of artists from Billy Gibbons, of ZZ Top, to former Judas Priest singer Rob Halford, teamed up with Julian Casablancas, lead singer of The Strokes, for the single "Sick Sick Sick," as well as Trent Reznor for the title track that didn't make the album.

He said the band has certain criteria needs for collaborations. First, they have to have respect for the person as an artist and a writer, and second, "people would find it strange."

Homme said that the fans range from finding it totally bizarre to being angry about it.

"They are the best fans around. They don't want us to jeopardize (the band)," he said.

So far, he hasn't heard much of what the fans think about the new material. Recently on tour in Europe, he said fans were "really stoked," but quickly pointed out that anyone who wasn't into the new stuff probably wouldn't stick around to talk about it.

"I want people to like the music. I want our kids to like it. I don't like to let people down," he said.

In the meantime, Homme has been going back to the Coachella Valley plenty to visit his parents with his 1-year-old daughter in tow.

"Tell Riverside I said, 'Hey! What's up?' They're on the way to my people," Homme said.

He had a message for his "people" of the Coachella Valley, too.

"Then tell them, 'Hey! Call me!' " he said brightly. "Or no."