QOTSA Could Finally Nab Their First GRAMMY Thanks To Mark Ronson
Queens Of The Stone Age is going after its first GRAMMY Award — again.
The group has been nominated six times before and is up again with a Best Rock Album nod for its latest release, Villains. Villains marked a bit of a change for the group, lining up with producer Mark Ronson, best known for his pop productions with Adele, Bruno Mars and others.
But QOTSA’s Dean Fertita tells us that Ronson brought in a fresh perspective that only benefited the album:
“Having Mark there…I think initially they looked at that, they didn’t know, like, ‘Why would they want to work with Mark?’ or something. But we’d met him a few times, and Mark’s just a music lover, man. He’s so knowledgeable, and he’s been wanting to do a rock ‘n’ roll record for a long time. Our thinking was that sort of dance element in rock and roll has always been there, and it’s always been on Queens records but it’s never been an obvious angle to approach a production from. We put those things together and it at least made for an interesting conversation initially, you know, give it a chance to give it a different environment to work in, I guess.”
Villains debuted at No. 3 on the Billboard 200 when it was released during August. The GRAMMYs will be awarded on January 28 in New York City and broadcast live on CBS.
Gary Graff is an award-winning music journalist who not only covers music but has written books on Bob Seger, Neil Young and Bruce Springsteen.
