Gonna Leave You by Queens of the Stone Age

Album: Songs For The Deaf (2002)

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This song, written by Queens Of The Stone Age main man Josh Homme and bass player Nick Oliveri, is very literal. "It's about my ex-wife," Oliveri said in a Songfacts interview. "She was quite a strange gal and I was going to leave her, so I was inspired."
Oliveri cites Devo as a musical influence on this song. "I love Devo," he told Songfacts. "It wasn't an intentional thing, but it's a weird, strange progression of 'Mongoloid.'"
"Gonna Leave You" is a track from Songs For The Deaf, the third Queens Of The Stone Age album. Josh Homme is the only permanent member of the group, so it's not uncommon for other guys to pop in for an album or two. For this album, the drummer was Dave Grohl, who before stepping into the frontman role with Foo Fighters was the drummer for Nirvana. He even toured with Queens Of The Stone Age in the summer of 2002.

The album took a different tenor when he came on board because he reworked a lot of the drum parts. The rest of the band was more than OK with that, in part because they really liked Grohl, but also because their record label threw a lot more resources their way after he signed on.
Nick Oliveri sings lead on this track, as he does on three other Songs For The Deaf cuts, including "Another Love Song," which is also about his ex wife.
Dean Ween makes an appearance on this track, adding guitar. Ween's other contributions to the album are on "Six Shooter" and "Mosquito Song."

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