Where eagles swear

Bringgg... bringgg... bringgg... It’s a midweek midday somewhere in Middle America, and the artist formerly known as ‘The Devil’ (aka Jesse Hughes of the Eagles Of Death Metal) isn’t answering his mobile. Hardly surprising, really. Rock stars are notoriously unreliable creatures – and comedy rock stars even more so. Oh, hang on! Here he is now...

“Sorry, dude, I was naked in the shower with two Oklahoma honeys and I couldn’t get to the phone!”
Whether Hughes actually was or not is debatable. A former journalist, the long-haired, heavily inked, 36-year-old is reputed to have his tongue firmly planted in his cheek at almost all times. Formed more than a decade ago with his lifelong friend Josh Homme (of QOTSA fame), the EODM are something akin to a Noughties Spinal Tap – sending up and celebrating the high-’70s hybrid of garage, glam and Motorhead (as scuzzily evidenced on their recently released third album Heart On).
Of course, it’s not all fun and games. Hughes dropped the ‘Devil’ moniker after cleaning-up a serious drug problem in rehab and now apparently answers to the nickname ‘Boots Electric’. But the fact that his religious mother disliked the original name also led to the change.
“I love my mom, she’s my best friend,” he explains. “And that ordeal of her reading my name in the liner notes of our last record as ‘The Devil’ caused such an uproar in my family. I mean, it was more uproarious than what would’ve happened if I’d brought home a black girlfriend or something like that. It caused the craziest uproar. And I learned something really quick. It sometimes just ain’t worth it, even for the sake of art, to upset your mom!”
Not that Hughes is necessarily worried about upsetting people. An avowed Republican, he’s probably one of the few American rock stars that didn’t vote for Obama.
“When movie stars and rock stars believe in something, it’s normally bullshit,” he sneers. “And I’m never gonna vote for someone just because a bunch of Hollywood fucking actors love them. I mean, Hollywood actors pretend to be people they aren’t for a living. They’re the most sophisticated liars in the world. So fuck ‘em!”
Are you a member of the Republican party?
“I’m actually a member of the America First Party, which if you had to describe it in terms of republicanism, I guess it’s the right-wing extremist political party. If you want to sum my politics up, I guess I want my money and my guns, and I don’t want anyone to tell me what to do.”
You’re hardly saying that Bush was a great president, though; are you?
“Um … I know four people personally where they were able to make €400 more per month because of George Bush’s tax cuts. And that put food on their family’s table. Otherwise they just would’ve gotten the notion of free healthcare – and a shitload more money taken outta their paycheck. You can’t argue with that. People know best what to do with their own fucking lives.”
But enough about politics. He tells me that he first met Homme when he was 13-years-old and living in California.
“We met when I went to my first party and got thrown into the swimming pool by the local bullies and they wouldn’t let me out for about two hours. Talk about humiliation! And Josh showed up and made them let me out. And that’s how we became friends. And he always managed to be there when I was about to get my ass kicked and he always gave me the same pep talk: ‘Why don’t you fucking stick up for yourself? Stop being such a pussy!’”
Given that Homme reportedly paid for your rehab, would it be fair to say that that dynamic continues today?
“Sort of. We love each other very much and we constantly look out and worry about each other. You can hear it in the music. We’ve just grown as friends. I love it. You don’t normally come to Hollywood to find the best examples of friendship you’re ever gonna find in your life. And that’s what half the album’s about. Songs like ‘Wannabe In LA’ are really about me going, ‘What the fuck? I want to be in LA? That’s weird!’”
Speaking of weird, is it true that ex-Sex Pistol Steve Jones is your post-rehab sponsor?
“Yeah! He’s a great man, he really is. He’s looked out for me, man. Jonesy being my sponsor was just yet another surreal aspect to my life, but a necessary one. Because he really has a good handle on life. You have to, being Steve Jones. He’s my sponsor but other than that I don’t really subscribe too much to the 12-step programme.”
So are you clean today?
“I’m clean-ish. I’ve never drank in my life. If something sucks, I normally stop. But when I went to rehab I was fucked up on everything. I mean, I’d never been in a rock band before ever in my life. I was suddenly getting laid by girls on purpose – like, shit was getting crazy for me, you know. And so I needed a break. But it was a $50,000 a month cappuccino resort. I don’t know if you can call that rehab!”
Finally, a few years back Axl Rose famously kicked your band off a Guns N’ Roses tour after just one gig and called you the Pigeons Of Shit Metal. Have you forgiven him yet?
“Axl Rose? Ha! You might think that I would hate the man or hold a permanent grudge. But my mother raised me right so to speak. And that son of a bitch made my career. He fuckin’ fired us and gave my good friend and guru and ally Dave Grohl an opportunity to say, ‘Being disapproved of by Axl is like being knighted by the queen’. And when he did that it put us in the headlines in a way we’d never been before. So it was almost like we went up against the old meister of rock, Axl Rose, and we won!”

Eagles Of Death Metal play Dublin’s Academy on April 2