Eagles of Death Metal are a rock band formed in Palm Desert, California in 1998. Despite the name, Eagles of Death Metal is not a death metal band. Hughes said that a friend was trying to introduce Josh Homme to the death metal genre. When he played the Polish band Vader and made a claim that the song was death metal, Homme called them "The Eagles of death metal". After hearing this phrase, he wondered what a cross between the Eagles and a death metal band would sound like.