Them Crooked Vultures Talk 'SNL' Appearance

Any band that can call themselves a supergroup must have many hidden talents. Take, for instance, Them Crooked Vultures, a.k.a. Josh Homme of Queens of the Stone Age and Eagles of Death Metal, Dave Grohl of Foo Fighters and Nirvana, and John Paul Jones of Led Zeppelin. TCV appeared on 'Saturday Night Live' last week, and in addition to their two killer songs these musical icons riffed comedic in two hysterical sketches.

"It was awesome," said Grohl a few days later backstage at New York's Roseland before the band's concert there. "My whole life, I've been a huge fan of 'Saturday Night Live,' some of my earliest musical memories have been watching that show. But also, it's the one thing I've been faithful to in my life! So for me to be in a skit, honestly I felt like one of those weird bazillionaires who pays to go to space."

Grohl, who's pretty hilarious both on and off camera, played the drummer in a hardcore band reunited to rock a friend's wedding. The epic, raging song was 'Fistfight in the Parking Lot.' Host Ashton Kutcher was on guitar, with 'SNL' cast members Fred Armisen on vocals and Bill Hader on bass. The faux gig appeared seamless, but Grohl was going with his instincts cause the sketch was shortened literally moments before going live to air.

"I jump offstage, and the wardrobe person is looking at me and going, 'Run, dude, run, RUN!' So I'm running as fast as I can to the tent where they change my clothes, and I jump in and there's a guy taking off my shirt, there's a guy taking off my pants, there's a guy giving me a blow job..." (He paused, you know, for comedic effect.) "Then right before we go live they're like, "Ten seconds!' And Lorne [Michaels] looks at me and goes, 'There've been a lot of cuts in the skit.' And I'm like, What do you mean?' And they're like, 'We're live.' And that's it! That's all the direction I had. And right as the skit started, Bill Hader leans over and says, 'You have to go to the breakdown after the first chorus. Go straight to the breakdown. There's no second verse.' OK! Nobody had any idea what was happening. My guess is that's what happens all night long."

A second sketch, alas, didn't make it to air. The digital short, called 'Tooter,' parodied Twittering celebs' penchant for publicizing literally every tedious detail about their lives, thoughts and bodily functions. Playing himself, Kutcher put a wire where the sun don't shine to activate a mobile device notifying fans about his bum emissions. News you need, right? As a saving grace, though, Tooter featured 64-year-old John Paul Jones, who had what Grohl describes as "kind of the funniest line in the whole show." Jones looked at the camera, and in his quiet, earnest tone, cheerfully announced, "I was in Led Zeppelin."

"Andy Samberg, who made it, was bummed out," sighed 6'4" Josh Homme, also backstage at Roseland. "He didn't understand why it didn't make it." Any theories? "We don't understand either," he joked. "Heads are going to roll."

"I bet they'll show it on a later episode," Grohl added.

"I thought it was great," Jones proclaimed. (He was in Led Zeppelin, you know.)

Catch Them Crooked Vultures on 'Austin City Limits' Saturday night on PBS, and on tour this spring.