[1] Artists such as Brant Bjork, PJ Harvey, Twiggy Ramirez, Dave Catching, Nick Oliveri, Mark Lanegan, John McBain, Ben Shepherd, Josh Freese, Chris Goss, Alain Johannes, Troy Van Leeuwen, Dean Ween, Les Claypool and many others from the Palm Desert Scene have contributed as songwriters and musicians.
[2][3] The Desert Sessions began in August 1997 at the Rancho De La Luna in Joshua Tree when Josh Homme brought together musicians from the bands Monster Magnet, Goatsnake, earthlings?, and Kyuss.
[1][4][5] The ranch, located in the Mojave Desert, has an old house filled with rare and unique recording equipment and instruments, and was owned by Dave Catching and the late Fred Drake.
For example, the song "Creosote" from Volumes 9 & 10 was written by Dean Ween and Alain Johannes on the ranch's front porch within four minutes of meeting each other.
[12] In a 2007 interview with Rockline, Homme stated that he was going to be working on a new Desert Sessions album in December 2007, and the first ten will be re-released as a box set.
[21] In September 2019, Desert Sessions Volumes 11 & 12 were officially announced,[22][23] along with a comedic promo video featuring Homme and Liam Lynch.
[24] The promo includes Homme running through some of the featured artists such as Billy Gibbons, Les Claypool, and Jake Shears.
[26][27] The art directors for Desert Sessions Volumes 11 & 12, Doug Cunningham and Jason Noto, won in the category for "Best Recording Package" at the 2021 Grammy Awards.