Rated R (Queens of The Stone Age Album) - Overview and Background

Overview and Background

The band began work on Rated R after touring in support of its previous album, Queens of the Stone Age, released in 1998. As a whole, the album contains numerous references to drugs and alcohol. This is particularly prominent on the opening track, "Feel Good Hit of the Summer", which mostly consists of the repeated line "Nicotine, valium, vicodin, marijuana, ecstasy and alcohol" followed by "c-c-c-c-c-cocaine". The MPAA's "R-rated" symbol features on the album's cover, along with the text "RESTRICTED TO EVERYONE, EVERYWHERE, ALL THE TIME". Keeping with this theme, the album's liner notes contain warning messages for each song, in the style of the warning messages given to parents on video and DVD boxes: "Auto Pilot", for example, contains "Alcohol and Sleep Deprivation".

"Monsters in the Parasol" originally appeared on a Desert Sessions album, Volume 4: Hard Walls and Little Trips, under the slightly different title of "Monster in the Parasol". "Tension Head" is a re-recording of the song "13th Floor", which originally appeared on Mondo Generator's debut album Cocaine Rodeo.

The drum, bass, guitars and vocals to the song "Quick and to the Pointless" were recorded simultaneously in just one take. Nick Oliveri's vocal performance was originally intended to be a scratch vocal, but the band liked it so much that this original recording remained on the finished song. There are also 2 verses in Dutch.

Josh Homme has stated that his favorite song from the album is "I Think I Lost My Headache", which he describes as being about "Paranoia... when you think something strange is going on, and everyone around you is so adamant about telling you it's fine... but then you start thinking 'Wouldn't that be exactly what you'd say if you didn't want me to know, and there is something going on?' And so it's kind of about that paranoid mentality which maybe I have sometimes." The song switches between a standard 4/4 time signature and the unconventional 15/8.

Rated R also marked the first appearance of guest vocalist Mark Lanegan of Screaming Trees, who has appeared on every Queens album since. Lanegan sang lead vocals on "In the Fade" and provided backing vocals for "Auto Pilot", "Leg of Lamb" and "I Think I Lost My Headache".