EAGLES OF DEATH METAL Frontman Calls AXL ROSE A 'Dick', Says LARS ULRICH Is An 'Asshole'

Johnson Cummins of the Montreal Mirror recently conducted an interview with EAGLES OF DEATH METAL frontman Jesse "The Devil" Hughes. A couple of excerpts from the chat follow below.

On stepping out of the shadow of QUEENS OF THE STONE AGE (whose Josh Homme is also a member of EAGLES OF DEATH METAL):

"With EAGLES, Josh brought people in the door, but it was up to me to make them stay. From the start, it was critical for this band to just do its own thing and not be a side project. It's kind of supernatural but this band is almost like it wanted to be made and be real. I got into a band at a late stage and saw a lot of bullshit before that, so it's really important to me that this band is always about two friends having the time of their lives and providing a philosophical statement of always doing the right thing."

On Axl Rose:

"Like any other GUNS N' ROSES fan, I find Axl to be really insulting. He cost a lot of people their jobs, a lot of heartache and probably some mental breakdowns while he fucked around on a record ['Chinese Democracy'] for 16 fucking years — just because he wanted to be a dick. I firmly believe that the gods of rock 'n' roll just chose me to kick him out of the gang for gross misuse of power. Axl still has the opportunity to do something that no one expects him to do, which is something cool. I honestly think he can do it, but first, he really needs to control himself a bit, and most importantly, get a real friend."

On other assholes in rock:

"Lars Ulrich from METALLICA is somebody who just really gets my gander up. You can tell the other guys in the band are cool and used to just be serious heshers who were probably whacked out on meth and would've kicked your ass in the '80s. On the other hand, you have Lars, who is just this swishy Mary who grew his hair long, put on a denim jacket and infiltrated this cool gang. The only time I met him, he was wearing a golf pantsuit and everybody was wondering who this fat golfer dude was acting like an asshole in our backstage area. He could've been the greatest, but I went up to him after I figured out who he was and told him how much I loved METALLICA, and he just looked through me and walked away. Thirty minutes later, Josh introduced me as the dude from the band, and he didn't even remember me from a half-hour before and went on about how he thought we were rad. The only thing I wanted to do at that point was kick his ass.

"The way I grew up, it's critically important to not be an asshole just because you can sing well or whatever. This is the coolest job in the world and nobody, not even Lars, deserves this job. You don't earn the ability to exclude people or get special treatment and a sense of entitlement just because you can carry a beat. A scary day for me is that I might not make my plane to go and rock people in Brussels, and I realize that's a fucking gift. When people are successful at rock 'n' roll, it can make the world seem like a dream, and that's what will fuck these people up. I like people and want people to feel they can belong — that's what real rock 'n' roll is supposed to be about."

Read more from the Montreal Mirror.