Songfacts®:

• According to Queens Of The Stone Age frontman Josh Homme, this song is about LSD. He said so at a concert in Madison, Wisconsin in October 2005, something to the effect of "since this is a college-town, here's a song about LSD."
  
  This would explain the nonsensical lyrics like "Paul's sister is an alien" and "Paul's dad is warped and bubbling." It also explains why the word "parasol," an umbrella used by ladies of distinction to shield the sun, is in the title of a rock song, and why there are monsters in there.
• "Monsters In The Parasol" first appeared in 1998 on Volume 4 of The Desert Sessions, a collective that included Josh Homme, Nick Oliveri, Chris Goss, and also members of the band The Eagles Of Death Metal. As the name suggests, the sessions took place in the desert, the Mojave to be precise. The first six volumes, released on the small Man's Ruin label, were issued from 1997-1999 in limited pressings.
  
  In 2000, when Queens Of The Stone Age recorded their second album, Rated R, Nick Oliveri joined the group and they re-recorded "Monsters In The Parasol" for it. Chris Goss, also part of The Desert Sessions, worked on the album as a producer.
  
  Homme convened the Desert Sessions with various musicians over the years. In 2003, PJ Harvey and Dean Ween were part of it; in 2019 Billy Gibbons and Matt Sweeney joined in.
• Josh Homme told Mojo magazine September 2010 about the lyrical content of Rated R: "People used to ask me what the lyrics were about and I got scared and said, 'They're about something for me but I need them to be about you. They're about nothing.' I was always really sad that I said that, because it's always been the opposite. I always wanted the right sounds to cradle the right lyrics. Rated R was the first time I allowed myself, psychologically, to wear a feather boa out."