Dean Fertita

Dean Fertita spent the early 2000s in the Detroit trenches with The Waxwings, playing power-pop that was way too polite for the garage-rock explosion happening down the street. That all changed when he got the call to fill the void left by Natasha Shneider in Queens of the Stone Age. He didn't just step into a lineup; he became the glue for Josh Homme’s most volatile eras, lugging a Moog Little Phatty and a Maton guitar into the desert to sharpen the band’s jagged edges. He’s the ultimate utility player who refuses to fade into the background. Whether he's hunkered down at Third Man Studios with Jack White and Alison Mosshart or tracking solo weirdness under the Tropical Gothclub moniker, the guy has a specific, haunted shorthand. He’s not there to solo; he’s there to make sure the textures sound like a fever dream in a mid-century lounge.

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