Former KYUSS Members File Suit Against KYUSS! LIVES Over Band Name

Former KYUSS guitarist Josh Homme and bassist Scott Reeder have filed a federal lawsuit against fellow ex-KYUSS members John Garcia (vocals) and Brant Bjork (drums) alleging "trademark infringement and consumer fraud" over the use of the KYUSS name.

Garcia, Bjork and ex-KYUSS bassist Nick Oliveri reunited for shows last year under the KYUSS LIVES! banner, in which they were joined by guitarist Bruno Fevery. The band has since toured on both sides of the Atlantic and is said to be currently working on a live album for a late 2012 release. There are also tentative plans for the group to record a brand new studio CD.

Homme and Reeder released a statement today via public relations firm Nasty Little Man:

"It sucks. To think we went to a meeting in January solely to help them with their request to continue KYUSS LIVES! With open arms, we made every attempt to help them continue KYUSS LIVES! respectfully. Only to discover while they looked us in the eye, KYUSS LIVES! management and band had filed federal documents in 2011 in an attempt to steal the name KYUSS. This is desperately what we were trying to avoid. It's a sad day for us and for John — but most of all for the fans. What a needless mess."

Regarding why Homme is not involved in the KYUSS reunion, Garcia previously told Rock Sound magazine, "I have nothing bad to say about Josh — he's extremely intelligent, very smart, a great guitar player, great songwriter, a great vocalist — he is a bad-ass, there is no question, and I love him dearly but he is busy with his own thing. He has THEM CROOKED VULTURES, QUEENS OF THE STONE AGE, he's a father, a businessman and even if we asked him to do it, I don't think he'd say yes, so I don't want to set myself up for a big fat no which is 99.9 percent what he would say."

Reeder played a handful of European live dates with KYUSS LIVES! last year as a fill-in for Oliveri. He was also a "special guest" at KYUSS LIVES!'s homecoming show on November 18, 2011 at The Wiltern in Los Angeles.

Reeder played bass on KYUSS' classic LPs "Welcome to Sky Valley" and "...And the Circus Leaves Town" and was also a member of doom legends THE OBSESSED.

In a 2010 interview, Homme explained his hesitation to participate in a KYUSS reformation.

"The offers come in all the time," he said. "They're getting more and more expensive, and more and more elaborate. The money is crazy, but I've never been tempted — I don't really care about the money, I never have. That's not what KYUSS was about, so to punctuate the end of our sentence with that would be blasphemy… KYUSS has such a great history that it would be a total error. I like that nobody saw KYUSS, and that it was largely misunderstood. That sounds like a legend forming to me. I'm too proud of it to rub my dick on it."