On Nipple Pasties, Judging How Someone Is In Bed And Drugs

If you're familiar with Eagles Of Death Metal, you'll know that frontman Jesse Hughes is a funny fucker. He owns multiple superhero capes and inhabits the rock'n'roll lifestyle like no other. The band's fourth studio album, and first in seven years, is ready for release and it's called Zipper Down. So is that his current situation? He chuckles, "Yeah, baby, you know it is." The album artwork features a sexy female torso, naked under her unzipped leather jacket but with nipple pasties featuring Hughes's face (right breast) and that of his Eagles Of Death Metal co-conspirator Josh Homme (left breast). "Joshua and I always wanted to be human nipples," he explains. On whether these could be potential EODM merch items, Hughes cheekily offers, "You know what? I'm gonna make special pasties just for you." Such a flirt!

"You know what? I'm gonna make special pasties just for you."

A cover of Duran Duran's Save A Prayer appears on EODM's upcoming set and Hughes admits he loved the song "as a kid". "But, more importantly, have you seen the Bugs Bunny cartoon where, like, a sweet-smelling pie — the odour will become a hand and grab Bugs Bunny by the nose and drag him by his nose? Well I've seen that song do that to girls and that's why I selected that one." Hughes is probably referring to the following Save A Prayer lyrics: "Some people call it a one night stand/But we can call it paradise." Would Hughes more often describe his one-nighters as paradise or hell? "I would more likely describe it as whatever I would have to fuckin' describe it as to get the girl naked," he replies, without missing a beat. We both try to speak at the same time and then Hughes coaxes, "Go ahead. No, I wanna hear what you have to say". Ok, then. Would Hughes have sex with someone who can't dance? "Well that's when you teach 'em how to dance," he posits. "You tend to know a lot about how a person will approach sex by how they dance; people that can't dance tend to be fashion models and they just lay there because they're expecting you to look at them, and then it's not very much fun." So does he also think that you can tell what someone will be like in the sack by the way they kiss? "Absolutely. A kiss is critical, girl. A kiss can say how much romance you're into. Like, I love romance; I think it's really important to not undervalue the sweet, simple things of amorous behavior... In the age of Tinder we've lost a lot of the cool parts of the sexual dance.

"And that said, you know: songs used to be about the romantic part and the horny part used to happen after you listened to 'em. It kind of loses, it actually doesn't lose, it kills the mysterious elements of love."

Fans of Hughes's solo work under the Boots Electric guise will recognise that Eagles Of Death Metal's Zipper Down includes new arrangements of three tracks from his criminally underrated 2011 solo debut, Honkey Kong. When told Honkey Kong should've been a smash, Hughes opines, "Baby, fucking thank you for saying that because I did too. However, the reason why it was interfered with so gravely is honestly a story that is one for the rock'n'roll treachery history book, to be sure. It is easily one of the fucking most weird things that I've ever gone through in my life." Let's just say that Hughes exacted "beautiful vengeance" vicariously, and believes the release was "intentionally held back". On penning a memoir, Hughes says, "I definitely want to do one 'cause I really — I've gotta be honest with you — I really wanna get this story out; the people involved should not be able to avoid responsibility."

The three aforementioned reinvigorated tracks are I Love You All The Time, Oh Girl and the first single to be lifted from Zipper Down, entitled Complexity (the video features Hughes and Homme executing some synchronised armography, brings the major LOLs and can be viewed below).

And just wait 'til you hear the intro to another EODM album track, Got The Power, which showcases Hughes's extraordinary how-low-can-you-go range. "I can really sing like that," he promises. "Josh was fuckin' losing his mind when I did that. He was like, 'You can sing in all ranges!'" Can Hughes please give it a crack? "'Oh yes I...', let's see if I can get into it." He clears his throat. "'Oh yes I rock the...'—  it takes you a minute to get into it, 'cause you actually have to be on a lot of speed to get your lungs up," Hughes shares. One of the pleasant side effects, is it? "I wouldn't do anything if there weren't a preponderance of pleasant side effects. I don't know another drug user like me, I simply don't, and that's cool! I don't hang out with the people that I buy drugs from, I don't hang out with the people that do the drugs that I buy. I'm a very weird dude. If something sucks, I don't do it. I've never not paid my bills, I mean, I've never traded my baby for crack; none of these things have ever happened to me — I can't relate to them [laughs]. If something sucks — stop. It's real easy!"

"I don't know another drug user like me, I simply don't, and that's cool!"

This scribe was fortunate enough to attend Download Festival in Donington Park, UK earlier this year and Eagles Of Death Metal were late to the stage. When asked whether they were tardy because Hughes went 'to see a man about a dog', he responds quickly, "Fuck, no. I don't do drugs on tour because it's just a habit you can't really maintain. I'll bring my own stash and when it runs out, it's out. It's no big deal. Ah, we were late to Download Festival because we had Austrian bus drivers." No Global Positioning System? "I don't know WHAT the fuck they had, they had the opposite of GPS; they had the system that got you lost on purpose. And we actually made it! We fuckin' pulled our bus up to the stage and we had that shit unloaded in minutes. I mean, it was nothing but a 'hats off' moment for everyone. But the first gig I've ever missed in my life I missed because of these incompetent buffoons. That was in France and it was a surrealistic, bizarre nightmare on an unprecedented level so I guess, in a way, it was kind of an interesting experience."

Download Festival sets tend to be proposterously short anyway, so Hughes just has to know that a shortened Eagles Of Death Metal set was like coitus interruptus. Hughes roars laughing. "Girl, that was what we were gonna call the album! That was actually the real album title, Coitus Interruptus, and then Josh pissed me off by stealing it — kind of — for [Queens Of The Stone Age album] Era Vulgaris."

The above trailer for VICE's rockumentary on Hughes, The Redemption Of The Devil, won't prepare you for the unexpected emotional rollercoaster experience of viewing the finished product. So how did Hughes feel when he watched it? "I haven't been able to watch the whole thing and I'll never be able to," he confesses. "And, I mean, I like the parts that are easy to watch but there's a sequence of events in that movie that, ah, it just represents a fuckin' awful period of my life that I didn't wanna live through in the first place. I don't wanna fuckin' live through it again, ever. You know what I mean?" Hughes is referring to his ongoing battle for the custody of his only child and those tearful scenes where he's forced to go long periods without seeing his son are really hard to watch. "That's the shit that I don't wanna live through again, you know what I mean?" Hughes tells, "Because, I gotta be honest with you, I married my ex-wife because I loved her and I'm the only person that I've ever known that was married before she got pregnant, you know what I mean? Like, we had been married for six months before we decided to have a kid. He's the only legitimate child I know in my peer group. And I loved that woman and I don't want to hate her. I don't wanna hate her, I really don't. But she makes it really fucking hard not to and I wouldn't be helping the situation if I kept reliving that shit. I would stay mad all the time."

"I loved that woman and I don't want to hate her. I don't wanna hate her, I really don't. But she makes it really fucking hard not to."

It's a credit to Hughes that he allowed the cameras to keep rolling during these devastating scenes. "You know, I pride myself — I really do — I keep my word; if I tell you I'm going to do something, you don't really need a contract to enforce it. I keep my word. And I gave my word to these guys when we started filming it that they could film a window of my life and whatever was inside that window would be a part of the story. And as much as I regretted making that promise at some points later on, I gave my word and I had to go with it." It must also have been hard for the filmmakers, who had to make the decisions to show such intimate material and shift the project's focus. "You know what? You just hit the nail on the head," Hughes allows. "We all really assumed it was gonna be one thing and, about six months into it, it became real clear that it was gonna be something else. And, you know, these guys making the movie... I mean, I don't wanna give the idea, too, that they were just purely objective dudes — they were actually my friends and so that was important to me; I wouldn't have trusted doing it, ever, if it had not been [with] my friends. And so it became a really personal process for everyone involved and I think, if anything, that's the one thing that comes off, you know."

When asked whether the situation with his son has improved now, Hughes says, "Yeah. He's my clone. I mean, nobody can really interfere with that, no matter how much they want to. And he just finished a summer school course learning to mix front of house, he's a journalism student in his high school and he's a drummer. I mean, I couldn't possibly have ever created my own version of what would be the perfect scenario of how to see yourself reflected in your child than that, do you know what I mean?" Now that his son's 16, Hughes shares, "I have him almost all the time."

You may or may not know this, but, in 2012, Hughes became an ordained minister with the Universal One Church. "I'm actually a legitimate priest," he confirms. "I'm not just a marriage certificate dude, you know? I went through a full seminary... I have a couple of couples that I counsel on a regular basis — I'm actually part of the Diocese Counselling, if you can believe that... I love it. It's the most fulfilling thing I've ever done." If you're just looking for a celebrity marriage celebrant, you'd better strike Hughes off the list, however. "I'm very fuckin' uncompromising. I've married about ten couples and I've refused to marry about three," he details. "Because marriage is a holy contract that has been given to us by God and it's not a fucking joke by any stretch of the imagination. If I don't feel like the couples are ready to take this shit seriously then I'm really not interested, in any way, in being a part of it. Because what they're asking me to do is stand before God and ask for his endorsement of their union." He laughs, before adding: "I'm gonna have to stand before God when I die and explain to him all my actions, and there's some shit I just don't wanna have to explain."