Joshua Michael Homme was born in Joshua Tree, California on May 17, 1973. He grew up in an affluent family in Palm Desert, California. His paternal grandfather, Cap, moved to the area from North Dakota. Homme's surname is of Norwegian origin and is believed to come from the town of Valle.

In 2004, Homme was arrested for assaulting Dwarves frontman Blag Dahlia and Karl Doyle, at Los Angeles' Dragonfly club. Pleading no contest, Homme was ordered to remain at least 100 yards (91.44 meters) away from Dahlia and the club, was sentenced to 3 years probation with community service, and was forced to enter a rehab program for 60 days. At the 2008 Norwegian Wood festival in Oslo, Homme drew criticism for his reaction to an audience member who had thrown a shoe at him during the song "3's & 7's". Homme called the audience member a "chicken-shit fucking faggot" and "a 12-year-old dickless fucking turd". The incident drew accusations of homophobia from several blogs, which were then picked up by the mainstream media. Homme replied with a lengthy public letter denying all accusations of homophobia, and stated that the tirade was aggravated by food poisoning and a high fever. Following a performance by QOTSA at the Jay-Z-owned Made in America Festival in 2013, Homme made comments about Jay-Z during a radio interview with CBC Radio 2's Strombo Show. He explained that his band was frisked by the event's security team prior to the performance and referred to Jay-Z's personal interaction with the band as a marketing stunt: In 2016, Homme was involved in a verbal altercation with autograph seller Jason Leckrone, who eyewitnesses said was taunting Homme for not signing autographs. Homme began to argue with Leckrone and called him an "entitled, spoiled motherfucker". In 2017, Leckrone filed a lawsuit against Homme for assault and battery. In December 2017, Homme was captured on video kicking the camera of Shutterstock photographer Chelsea Lauren into her face during KROQ's 'Almost Christmas' concert in Los Angeles. After staying through the show and photographing subsequent bands, Lauren went to Cedars-Sinai Medical Center for treatment. In a statement, Homme claimed that he had been kicking over lighting equipment and was unaware that he had kicked Lauren until he was informed of it the next day. Lauren disputed this, stating that Homme had made eye contact with her before kicking her. The day after the incident, Homme issued a video response, in which he admitted to kicking Lauren and apologized to her.

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