Them Crooked Vultures

Though short-lived, Them Crooked Vultures was one of the few legitimate rock supergroups to emerge in the late 00s/early 10s, bringing together three of rock's biggest names-bassist/keyboardist John Paul Jones from Led Zeppelin (and an active production/session man career before and after), drummer Dave Grohl from Nirvana and the Foo Fighters, and singer/guitarist Josh Homme from Queens of the Stone Age. All three had proved open to various collaborations over the years, and Grohl and Homme were at a peak of popularity when Them Crooked Vultures was formed in 2009. By this time they had been teasing the idea of a band together in various interviews, originally taking the name Caligula but changing it for copyright reasons. With a name reflecting Homme's stoner-friendly sense of humor, Them Crooked Vultures played its first show at the Metro in Chicago on August 9, 2009. From the start they played nothing but band-written tunes. Jones doubled on bass and keys, Grohl stuck to his old Nirvana role as non-singing drummer, and the live band was fleshed out by a fourth familiar face, Homme's QOTSA bandmate Alain Johannes on additional guitars and keys. While Homme's lead vocals harked back to the QOTSA sound, the songs were mostly lengthy and opened to band interplay. Recorded earlier in the year, their self-titled album was released in November 2009 and included all but one of the songs in their regular live set ("Hwy 1," a single-only track). The album was well-received and the band continued playing theater and festival shows in the US, Europe and Japan. The last show was at the Fuji Rock festival on July 30, 2010, just under a year after their first one. Talk of a second album began as early as 2010, when Jones told an interviewer they were working on fresh material. Grohl said the same two years later, though nothing would up materializing. The subject came up again in November 2019, the ten-year-anniversary of the first album's release, when Homme said that all three members wanted to make a followup; Grohl has also noted they were "technically still a band" and on a schedule of practicing once every decade. However all three members were booked-Homme with QOTSA, Grohl with Foo Fighters, and Jones with a new band, Sons of Chipotle-so Them Crooked Vultures remained a one-off.