Queens of the Stone Age is hoping to score its first Grammy Award, or awards, this weekend. The group has been nominated three times before without taking home a trophy; at this year’s 66th Annual Grammy Awards it’s up for Best Rock Album for “In New Times Roman” and Best Rock Song for the band-written “Emotion Sickness.” The group’s Dean Fertita tells us that Queens didn’t think about awards potential while making its eighth studio album, but it did have a firm idea of what it wanted “In New Times Roman” to sound like:

“We knew sonically it was gonna be pretty heavy and look for the brutal guitar sounds and as raw as we can make it, a record as we have made as a group. We had no other choice considering everything we were kind of dealing with. It just seemed the only way to really tap into it, right?” :27

“In New Times Roman” was made while Queens, like everyone else, was unable to tour during the pandemic. Founder and frontman Josh Homme was also dealing with cancer, from which he’s now fully recovered.

“In New Times Roman” debuted at No. 9 on the Billboard 200. In addition to “Emotion Sickness” the album also spawned the singles “Carnavoyeur” and “Paper Machete.”

The Grammy Awards take place Sunday, February 4th, in Los Angeles and will be telecast on CBS and stream via Paramount+. The Premiere Ceremony, where most of the awards are presented, streams at 3 p.m. via Grammy.com and on The Recording Academy’s YouTube channel.

Queens heads back on the road February 5th to play in Japan, Australia and New Zealand before returning to North America in April.