Josh Homme has shared a letter Anthony Bourdain wrote to the Queens of the Stone Age frontman’s daughter Camille that encapsulates the friendship between the rocker and the late chef.
“Tony, I miss you bad. Once Camille was so mad at you. She was defending me. & So were you. Defending me. As we had done & would do many times over the years for each other. & you, with great care, such empathy, such sweetness… you apologized to a little girl who was defending her daddy,” Homme wrote of the letter, noting to Bourdain’s own daughter, “Ariane, this was your father.”
In Bourdain’s letter, he apologized to Camille for smashing one of Homme’s guitars during a promo for the Parts Unknown episode that Bourdain filmed with Homme in the California High Desert.
“You saw me take Daddy’s guitar and smash it against a tree and I’m sure that was upsetting,” Bourdain wrote, explaining that the promo was a “not so subtle” ode to a similar scene in National Lampoon’s Animal House where John Belushi’s character destroys an acoustic guitar.
“Know that that was in fact not really Daddy’s guitar, and that we were both just playing around,” he continued. “Daddy would have been very angry were I to do such a thing – and as he is a large man, I would not still be here to write this letter. I like your Daddy very much. We are friends.”
As evidence of their close friendship, Bourdain colorfully reminisced about an incident at the bar Pappy & Harriet’s were a “superfan” accosted Homme, who “guided him by the thorax” to a security guard.
“I would have broken my beer glass across the man’s skull and then jabbed the remnants into his ****ing neck. That’s the kind of guy I am,” Bourdain wrote. “I had your Daddy’s back – just like he had mine.”
Bourdain closed out the letter by praising the “completely brilliant” Homme, stating that the rocker never got drunk during filming despite the frequent tequila drinking and asking what Homme cooks for her at home.
Following Bourdain’s death by suicide on June 8th, Homme paid tribute to his friend both on social media and onstage, with Queens of the Stone Age dedicating “Long Slow Goodbye” to his “brother” Tony.
Tony, I miss you bad. Once, Camille was so mad at you. She was defending me. & So were you. Ariane, this was your father. Humbly yours, Joshua pic.twitter.com/sR3mwO5WBI
— QOTSA (@qotsa) June 29, 2018