{"id":122836,"date":"2026-02-04T17:50:26","date_gmt":"2026-02-04T17:50:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/122836\/"},"modified":"2026-02-04T17:50:26","modified_gmt":"2026-02-04T17:50:26","slug":"the-story-behind-feel-good-hit-of-the-summer-by-queens-of-the-stone-age","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/122836\/","title":{"rendered":"The story behind Feel Good Hit of the Summer by Queens of the Stone Age"},"content":{"rendered":"

When Queens of the Stone Age<\/a> signed with Interscope for their second album, it was because they celebrated the “weird bands” on their roster. This was exciting to their frontman and principle songwriter Josh Homme<\/a>.<\/p>\n

“I felt like if they were excited about Primus<\/a> then they\u2019d be really excited about me and I\u2019m not singing about nacho cheese or something, I\u2019m singing about LSD,” he explained. “They\u2019re very close. They both make you feel bad at the end.\u201d<\/p>\n

So, Feel Good Hit of the Summer, then. It was simply a list of drugs repeated ad nauseam cut with insistent drum beat and riff that echoes Big Black\u2019s Pavement Saw.<\/p>\n

Initially conceived by Homme as a jokey, throwaway skit to sneak in at the end of their 2000 album Rated R, it was thanks to Kyuss<\/a> producer and Masters of Reality frontman Chris Goss, that song was given space to get loose and became a single in its own right.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen we recorded that album, that song was kind of like an afterthought,\u201d explains Goss. \u201cJosh was just going to throw a few seconds of that chant in at the end of the record. I said, \u2018No, man. That rocks!\u2019 And it ended up opening the record.\u201d<\/p>\n

You may like<\/p>\n

Feel Good Hit Of The Summer – YouTube
\n\"Feel<\/p>\n

Watch On <\/a><\/p>\n

Written by Homme and bassist Nick Oliveri, the song was conceived following a messy three-day party in the Californian desert at the turn of the millennium.<\/p>\n

\u201cNick and I had gone out to Joshua Tree just before New Years, 2000, and stayed at a place called 29 Palms Inn,\u201d Homme told Mojo in 2010. \u201cOut of that came Feel Good Hit of the Summer. [It] was such a great way to start that record. It said, \u2018Look out, here we come.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Recorded at the legendary Sound City studio in Van Nuys, California in early 2000, the band bumped into Judas Priest vocalist Rob Halford<\/a>, who was recording his solo album Resurrection in the same facility. He was asked if he’d like to contribute his unmistakable vocals to the song. The Metal God gave a resounding yes.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe said, \u2018Will you write the lyrics down?\u2019 and he hadn\u2019t heard the song, he agreed to do it without even knowing what it was,\u201d Homme said. \u201cOn a piece of paper I wrote, \u2018NICOTINE, VALIUM, VICODIN, MARIJUANA, ECSTASY, ALCOHOL, AND COCAINE\u2019 really big in capitals. I pushed this paper to him and he looked at it and goes, \u2018Rock \u2019n\u2019 roll cocktail \u2013 I think I invented that\u2019. We got on great, he\u2019s such a lovely guy.\u201d<\/p>\n

The latest news, features and interviews direct to your inbox, from the global home of alternative music.<\/p>\n

Queens Of The Stone Age – Feel Good Hit Of The Summer – YouTube
\n\"Queens<\/p>\n

Watch On <\/a><\/p>\n

While the lyrics are simple, there was the small task of getting radio stations across America to play the song on air. For Homme, the single release was something of a \u201csocial experiment\u201d, albeit one using their new paymasters’ money.<\/p>\n

\u201cHow do people react when you say things that are uncomfortable?\u201d Homme said during an interview with the Los Angeles times in 2000. \u201cThe song will be censored, but there isn\u2019t a single curse word in it. I just want to hang it out there and leave it for the court of public opinion to decide.\u201d<\/p>\n

“The song will be censored, but there isn\u2019t a single curse word in it.”<\/p>\n

Josh Homme<\/p>\n

After all, the song itself isn\u2019t pro-drug. It\u2019s not anti-drug. Either way, Walmart were reluctant to stock the album unless the song was removed entirely. The frontman pointed out the album\u2019s title Rated R was enough to suggest that the music would be about grown-up activities and not suitable for children.<\/p>\n

\u201cSome people will cheer and some people’s moms will be upset,\u201d he told NME. \u201cAnd some people may realise that someone may be sticking a knife in some genre… like stoner rock, as an example. I don’t feel, though, like we have an obligation to be positive or negative for kids. It’s really just a list, isn’t it? There’s no censurable material involved.\u201d<\/p>\n

While the single itself didn\u2019t chart in the US \u2013 thanks to zero airplay \u2013 it achieved Top 40 status in the UK and remains a staple of their set over 25 years later.<\/p>\n

\u201c[European fans] took it exactly as it was; it was a joke,\u201d remembers Goss. \u201cIt’s a really funny song.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"When Queens of the Stone Age signed with Interscope for their second album, it was because they celebrated…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":122837,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[9,24,63,122,124,123],"class_list":{"0":"post-122836","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-queens","8":"tag-new-york","9":"tag-new-york-city","10":"tag-nyc","11":"tag-queens","12":"tag-queens-headlines","13":"tag-queens-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/122836","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=122836"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/122836\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/122837"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=122836"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=122836"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=122836"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}