Nick Oliveri On Dispute Over Kyuss Name: “Why Do You Wanna Own The Name If You Wanna Kill The Band?”

During an interview with GoetiaMedia.com, bassist Nick Oliveri opened up about Kyuss and his desire to see the band on the road again. However, members of the group have been unable to tour under the Kyuss moniker due to a 2012 lawsuit that guitarist Josh Homme and bassist Scott Reeder filed against drummer Brant Bjork and singer John Garcia after they allegedly tried to trademark the name.

Oliveri said the following:

“It’s one of those things. I feel personally that it’s a fans’ band. When the band existed [from the late 1980s until] ’95, with a record company push and all behind it, as a band, it got to this height [raises his hand above the ground]. And the band broke up, and then years later, fans traded MP3s, CDs, cassettes, whatever, and it grew this big [raises his hand much higher] without any label push, without the band existing. So it’s a fans’ band; they took it further than we ever did.”

He also added:

“[The fans] wanted us to play. I wish we were able to play. But I don’t have any ownership or stake in the name. Brant came up with the name; he didn’t have ownership in it. He left the band at one point. The existing members registered the name. So it’s just as simple as that. I kind of feel a lot of different ways about it. I feel like why do you wanna own the name if you wanna kill the band? Let us run with it and have a good time. We’re playing [the songs] with all respect to the music that we can, as close to it as we can. And the fans, we owe it to ’em.”

[via Blabbermouth]

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Brant Bjork Says He Reached Out To Josh Homme About Possible Kyuss Reunion

During an appearance on TotalRock’s “Hobo On The Radio” podcast, Brant Bjork revealed that he approached Josh Homme about a possible Kyuss reunion. This news comes after the Queens Of The Stone Age frontman previously said that he was open to playing with the band in July 2020.

Bjork said the following when asked about Homme’s comments:

“It’s an interesting comment, and I can totally relate to his feeling, because I was really bummed the way that KYUSS broke up in ’95; I didn’t want it to end that way. So what we should have done is never broke up. Had we known as young dudes — which, let’s face it, we were young, and it’s hard to do — had we known how to keep a band together, we could have just had that band moving all along and taking breaks from time to time to pursue other things. But, yeah, it has this kind of stop and rebirth and reinvention, and, yeah, I share his frustration. But there’s always a way to do it, and it just takes communication. I’ve always said if you communicate, you can relate, and if you can relate, you can create. That’s how it works. And if you’re not communicating, then there’s gonna be absolutely no creating. And that’s where the problem is — is that we’re unable to communicate. And over the years, I think Josh and I kind of being the ones who, in a lot of ways, oversaw this band existing, in certain terms, we just have a hard time communicating. Which is interesting, because when we were kids, we were great at communicating. We were great at communicating and relating and creating, and that was what made us have the partnership that we had within the band. And then the communication broke down and we were never able to put it back together.”

“I heard his comment. And interestingly, I thought it was really fitting that it was Nick who actually called me and said, ‘Hey, you should check this out.’ I was, like, ‘Oh, yeah. For sure, man. That’s pretty trippy.’ And so I listened to it. And to be honest, it was really kind of relieving to hear him speak the way he was. I don’t talk to him, I don’t have a relationship with him anymore, so I don’t know who he is and where he is and what he does anymore. But in terms of what we have and did with KYUSS, I thought it was some healthy words and a healthy perspective on things. And it even went to the extent that a friend of mine was, like, ‘Hey, you know what? Maybe it’s a good time to reach out to him.’ And I thought, ‘Yeah, it’s not a bad idea, man.’ I think we’re at an age, and after all that we’ve done and experienced individually, and even collectively when we were younger, I think, there’s no reason for us to just kind of say, ‘Hey, man…’ Not unlike what I’m doing right now with Nick in STONER — a kind of way to say, ‘Hey, why don’t we just go back and kind of try and plug into that time before we were accomplished professional musicians.’ ‘Cause there’s a starting point to everything. Maybe there’s the ability where we can go back before all this stuff happened and try and communicate from that place. I don’t know. Maybe that’s a fantasy. I don’t know. But it was an idea. And I reached out to him. And he actually was, like, ‘Yeah, let’s talk. And I’ll get back to you.’ And I was, like, ‘All right. Cool, man.’ And then it never happened. So I don’t know what to say about that.

As far as a KYUSS reunion happening, that was my attempt at not necessarily getting the band back together but at the very least developing some communication with Josh. And it seemed at first that it might be time and [we] actually [might] be able to connect. But it didn’t happen. That was months and months and months ago, so it’s clear that it’s not gonna move forward. And who knows? Maybe he puts KYUSS together and puts his own version together or whatever. I don’t know what he’s gonna do. We’ll have to just see.”

[via Blabbermouth]

Josh Homme Has Thought About Playing With Kyuss Again

It looks like Josh Homme (Queens Of The Stone Age) may be open to playing a Kyuss reunion show one day. He recently revealed that he has considered the idea during an interview with Kyuss World Radio.

Homme had the following to say when asked if he knew Kyuss’ “…And The Circus Leaves Town” was going to be their final album:

“One aspect that I always agreed with is that bands, especially at that time, I was adamant that bands shouldn’t go on too long. At the time, I really felt like you do your best work, and when you realize you’ve done your best work, that’s when you should explode the band — to preserve it is to destroy it; that you end [the band] at the absolute apex of your creativity as a group of people. And for me, personally, and I probably should have shared this, but in my gut, I was, like, ‘We’ll do one more record, and it’ll be everything we have.’

And so when I suggested that title, I think I knew that that was it, or I felt that it was coming to a close. It just felt very sort of Edgar Allan Poe, or it felt like ‘Something Wicked This Way Comes’, which is one of the [most] beautiful I’ve ever seen for a book. It’s just got this beautiful ominous darkness to it. And so ‘…And The Circus Leaves Town‘ just felt timeless, and it’s over, and you watch the exit on the horizon.”

He continued after being asked about a reunion:

“My philosophy has always been, never do a reunion, never do a sequel. It’s not what it was; it’s what it is. And that’s kind of how I’ve felt. A legacy that involves having been at the epicenter of a scene that got created, it’s so fragile; it’s like an ice sculpture. And I don’t wanna be a blow dryer on that thing. That being said, I was in full support of Kyuss Lives! and I would go to the shows and I told them as much, until what Brant [Bjork] and, unfortunately, what John [Garcia] tried to do. And that was terrible.”

He also talked about the trademark lawsuit that him and Scott Reeder filed against John Garcia and Brant Bjork, who were preforming as Kyuss Lives!:

“All you have to do is show each other respect and say, ‘Hey, we wanna do this, and we wanna talk about it.’ Once Scott Reeder told me they were wanting to put out an album, I said, ‘Let’s sit down and talk.’ So Scott and I went and talked to John and Brant. Sorry, it wasn’t Brant — it was just John, because the band as it is, Brant had quit, so he wasn’t part of that, what it was when it stopped, [which was] me and Scott and John.

So I said, ‘This is a discussion for me and you and John.’ So I went and talked. And I said, ‘We should find out a way for you guys to continue that’s respectful.’ You don’t trample on what the legacy is and that you kind of let everyone understand what’s going on moving forward.

And the name they chose was a little unfortunate, ’cause it’s actually literally saying Kyuss is alive again, which wasn’t my favorite thing, but I was, like, ‘Who cares?’ But unbeknownst to me and Scott during that meeting, they’d already applied for a trademark to steal the name away.

So I’m sitting there talking to these guys in good faith, and their managers, and they’d already applied, and you have, like, 20 days to object to the application. So the notion that I’m sitting there talking in good faith about how they could continue, and meanwhile, at that exact moment, in another room somewhere, they’re applying to take the trademark for the name Kyuss so we wouldn’t own it anymore, so John and Brant would own it.

And so John had felt like he was robbing himself for something, and that’s just not right — I don’t play that way. And it also meant that they couldn’t be trusted to be honest. ‘Cause I’m sitting in a room, and instead of telling you that, it’s like being stabbed in the back, essentially.

There was no choice but to actually take action, because you can’t sit down and say, ‘Let’s talk about this,’ because now you told me that I may say something to you with my right hand, but my left hand might be stabbing you in the back. It’s made it impossible to trust what was going on.

And Scott and I both were, like, ‘Jesus.’ And it was only three people — me and John and Scott. It was, like, ‘John, what are you doing? You are allowing you and Brant to take the name from you and me and Scott.’”

Homme also added:

“I suppose at the end of the day, they didn’t need a blessing [to play Kyuss music], but I was giving it to ’em. I want those guys to do well. And they were playing Kyuss music for a generation that had only heard of it and never heard it. I didn’t see the harm in that. But trying to usurp it and take it away was just like dirty pool.

The problem with all that stuff is that in a lawsuit or something like that, everyone loses; everyone looks bad. People that have loved Kyuss for so long go, ‘Fuck these guys.’ And that’s terrible. That’s why I say it’s so fragile. That’s why I say I’ve always wanted to err on the side of don’t finger bang the ice sculpture; it’s gonna break.

If you don’t touch it, it’s just classic. But you don’t punctuate the end of a band with a lawsuit. Those things are tragic, and they’re awful. And then they lost, because, of course, you lose when you do things like that. But that damage is awful.

But to be honest with you, and to answer your question, there have been times I thought it cannot end that way, and the only real way to end it correctly now would be to play. And because they sort of perverted the punctuation and they knocked the wing off this beautiful dragon that’s an ice sculpture, and the only way to put the motherfucking wing back on would be to [play again].

I have thought about this, especially in the last few years, to do something special, and even to make up for that mistake of Brant and, unfortunately, John, to make up for it. [I thought we should] play and give all the money away.

Like, play for the fans — cover your costs and make it five bucks. Figure out a way to be, like, this is how the punctuation will end the sentence of this band. Because it was never about money — it never was about money.

It never was about fame, and when it felt like that was the move they were making, I was so sad.”

[via Blabbermouth]