Formed by frontman Josh Homme, Queens of the Stone Age became the most commercially successful band to emerge from the Palm Desert Scene in California in the 1990s. Homme previously served as the guitarist in Kyuss, the most notable of the "stoner rock" bands known for combining heavy metal, psychedelia, blues, punk and grunge into a potent cocktail of bass-heavy riffs, sludgy grooves, melodic vocals and free-form jamming. As this tag suggests, these bands were often fuelled by illicit substances, particularly marijuana, LSD and magic mushrooms. Once Kyuss split up in 1996, Homme started hosting "The Desert Sessions", which became a creative hub for him and other Palm Desert musicians to write and instantly record countless songs. It was from these sessions that Homme put together the band's eponymously-titled debut album in 1998, a DIY job that was critically praised for evolving the Palm Desert sound. Having drafted in ex-Kyuss members on drums and bass, Homme's next step was to release "Rated R" in 2000, a sonically more experimental album that explored themes of addiction, overdosing, drug-induced paranoia and heavy comedowns. Despite controversy over the drug references, the album performed well critically and commercially, with lead single "The Lost Art of Keeping a Secret" charting highly in both the US and the UK and planting the seeds for success via their behemoth third album "Songs for the Deaf" two years later. On this episode, Tim and Ollie explore go on a bad trip and explore fear and loathing in Palm Desert to understand the making of Rated R.