"It's Spiderman again!" Queens Of The Stone Age's Josh Homme reunites with masked superhero at European festival

Spiderman with QOTSA
(Image credit: @StuBru, Twitter)

On July 2 Queens OF The Stone Age returned to Rock Werchter festival in Belgium, and came face-to-face with masked superhero Spider-Man for a second time.

Back in July 2018, while playing the same festival, QOTSA frontman Josh Homme spotted the iconic superhero in the audience, and invited the web-slinging all-American hero onstage while the band played Millionaire. And last weekend Homme spotted the comic book icon in the crowd once more - not difficult, admittedly, what with the distinctive outfit and the fact that Spiderman was holding up a 'speech bubble' featuring the words 'Josh, wanna meet again?'

"Holy shit," said Homme. "It's fucking Spiderman again."

Homme then extended an invitation to his old pal to join the group onstage once again, marvelling "Look at him fly" as Spiderman crowd-surfed his way to the stage. The singer then stepped back to let the superhero address the crowd.

“Hello, Werchter!” Spiderman said. “I’m gonna keep this fucking short. I have one thing to say… With great power..."

"...comes great responsibility,” the Werchter crowd responded.

A beautiful moment for all concerned.

Watch the 2018 meeting between the band and the comic book/film icon below, plus their 2023 reunion, filmed by fan @StuBru who posted the footage on Twitter.

Following the release of QOTSA's new album In Times New Roman..., Josh Homme has been reflecting on the musicians he considers his personal heroes, and cited Iggy Pop as a core inspiration, for his unique and unadulterated sense of self.

"Pop has always been my inspiration," he tells Apple Music's Zane Lowe. "He went from a junkie [who] was a pariah – people would say, ‘You can do whatever you want, but just don’t bring Iggy over here’ – to someone [who] really is such a celebrated, venerated monument."

Paul Brannigan
Contributing Editor, Louder

A music writer since 1993, formerly Editor of Kerrang! and Planet Rock magazine (RIP), Paul Brannigan is a Contributing Editor to Louder. Having previously written books on Lemmy, Dave Grohl (the Sunday Times best-seller This Is A Call) and Metallica (Birth School Metallica Death, co-authored with Ian Winwood), his Eddie Van Halen biography (Eruption in the UK, Unchained in the US) emerged in 2021. He has written for Rolling Stone, Mojo and Q, hung out with Fugazi at Dischord House, flown on Ozzy Osbourne's private jet, played Angus Young's Gibson SG, and interviewed everyone from Aerosmith and Beastie Boys to Young Gods and ZZ Top. Born in the North of Ireland, Brannigan lives in North London and supports The Arsenal.