Troy Van Leeuwen

Troy Van Leeuwen (born January 5, 1970) is an American musician and record producer.

He is best known as a guitarist and multi-instrumentalist in the rock band Queens of the Stone Age, with whom he has recorded five studio albums.

In the late 1980s, Van Leeuwen played in Jester, a successful southern California band fronted by vocalist Eric Book.

Jester released an EP, which is the earliest and most rare recording of a 16-year-old Van Leeuwen.

He then played in a small band called Little Boots, with which he recorded a number of demos and played a few shows before the band's breakup.

His next band was 60 Cycle, which released their debut "Pretender" in 1995, and their self-titled album the following year.

It was during his time in 60 Cycle that Van Leeuwen met Kellii Scott, and the two started working on a project (later to be known as Enemy).

Van Leeuwen went on to play in Failure.

The band released three records and didn't enjoy any commercial success, but was praised by critics as a talented and almost revolutionary group.

It was during a tour with Failure when Van Leeuwen met former Kyuss guitarist Josh Homme, who was presently playing rhythm guitar with The Screaming Trees.

After the breakup of Failure, Van Leeuwen became a session musician and recording engineer, working with groups such as Orgy, Crazy Town, Coal Chamber and KoRn.

It was during his time as a session musician that Van Leeuwen met Tool frontman Maynard James Keenan, who offered him a spot in his and Billy Howerdel's new band, A Perfect Circle.

Originally a member of Failure, Van Leeuwen joined the alternative rock supergroup A Perfect Circle in 1999, contributing to their first two studio albums, Mer de Noms (2000) and Thirteenth Step (2003), before joining Queens of the Stone Age to tour in support of their third studio album, Songs for the Deaf (2002).

The band played their first show at LA's Viper Club Reception on August 15, 1999.

After playing shows in Los Angeles, the band entered the studio to begin work on their debut album, Mer de Noms.

The album was released on May 23, 2000, making it the highest ever debut for a new rock band, selling over 188,000 copies in its first week, and appearing at number four on the Billboard 200.

Van Leeuwen toured extensively with the band, initially as the opening act for Nine Inch Nails, followed a number of headlining tours around the world.

Van Leeuwen recorded guitar parts on only three tracks of A Perfect Circle's second album, Thirteenth Step, before successfully auditioning for a spot in Josh Homme's Queens of the Stone Age.

After outperforming Jeordie White and others in the audition, Van Leeuwen was welcomed as the band's second guitarist for their Songs for the Deaf tour.

Besides playing guitar, Van Leeuwen also performed on lap steel guitar, keyboards, backing vocals and occasionally bass guitar.

Due to the band's schedule, Van Leeuwen had only one week to learn 30 songs before the tour began.

For the European leg of the album's supporting tour, Dave Grohl left to return to his main band Foo Fighters.

He was replaced with former Danzig drummer Joey Castillo.

Songs for the Deaf was a critical and commercial success, and the singles "No One Knows" and "Go with the Flow" became hits on both radio and MTV.

Joining the band in 2002, he is the second-longest-serving member of the band, after founding member Josh Homme.

Van Leeuwen is also a member of the supergroup Gone Is Gone and has fronted his own projects, Enemy and Sweethead.

The tour culminated in a number of headline dates in Australia in January 2004.

Van Leeuwen's first recording with QOTSA was Lullabies to Paralyze.

The band entered the studio with long-time collaborator and multi-instrumentalist Alain Johannes, who replaced Nick Oliveri on the album.

Van Leeuwen aimed to fill in some of the gaps in the music where he felt the sound could be expanded through atmospheric and ambient textures made by guitar, lap steel and piano.

The album (the title of which is taken from a lyric in Mosquito Song from Songs for the Deaf) featured several guest appearances, most notably ZZ Top's Billy Gibbons, who performed backing vocals and lead guitar on "Burn the Witch" and the ZZ Top cover, "Precious and Grace".

Van Leeuwen has remained in the band ever since, recording five albums with the band to date: Lullabies to Paralyze (2005), Era Vulgaris (2007), ...Like Clockwork (2013), Villains (2017) and In Times New Roman... (2023).

Van Leeuwen has contributed to several other Queens of the Stone Age-related side-projects, including The Desert Sessions, Mondo Generator, Eagles of Death Metal and The Gutter Twins.

In addition to his primary projects, Van Leeuwen has also been a touring member of The Damned, Jane's Addiction and Iggy Pop's band.

Van Leeuwen has a Dutch surname (he has ancestors from the Netherlands and has described himself as a third-generation American).

He became interested in music at an early age and his dad would play early rock and roll records such as Chuck Berry.

His first big influence in learning how to play rock came through listening to Led Zeppelin records.

Playing drums initially, Van Leeuwen sought to imitate Zeppelin drummer, John Bonham, but later switched to guitar and discovered that he had an aptitude for it.

He cites Jimmy Page as a big influence:

"I would have to say that Jimmy Page was the first influence I had as a guitar player. There were so many textures and different sounds that he got. The riffs that he made were undeniably great. Every one of them. Even the mistakes he made were great. So to me, that was a great first influence."