KYUSS LIVES! Is 'Shocked And Saddened' By JOSH HOMME Lawsuit

Ex-KYUSS members John Garcia (vocals) and Brant Bjork (drums) have issued a statement in response to the lawsuit filed by their former KYUSS bandmates Josh Homme and Scott Reeder 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 on March 10 via public relations firm Nasty Little Man in which they claimed that they "made every attempt to help [Garcia, Bjork and Oliveri] 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."

In a statement released earlier today, Garcia and Bjork said, "We are both shocked and saddened that our friend and onetime bandmate has chosen to file a lawsuit against us, especially after having positive discussions since our reformation. We look forward to resolving this private matter behind closed doors and moving forward with work on our new album and connecting with our amazing, loyal fans."

Writing on his Facebook page on March 11, Reeder stated about the reaction to the news that he and Homme filed lawsuit against their former bandmates, "Maaaaaaan, I've been called every foul name in the book [on Saturday], and all I did was make a choice to stand up to defend and retain small rights that I should be able to keep sacred and unhindered for the rest of my life and beyond. I didn't have much of a choice: lose all of the rights in two weeks, or keep them forever. I didn't choose to be in this situation at all — I was forced to react very quickly with a looming deadline, and it's been rough. I saw people bitterly divided [yesterday] over this stupid stuff… crazy. But the overwhelming support from friends and family was very much appreciated and needed. Thank you."

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.

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."

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."