MONDO GENERATOR Mainman Says OZZFEST 2007 'Wasn't Our Scene'

Mark Carras of Rock My Monkey recently conducted an interview with MONDO GENERATOR frontman Nick Oliveri (also ex-KYUSS, QUEENS OF THE STONE AGE). A couple of excerpts from the chat follow:

Rock My Monkey: Why did you drop off Ozzfest? Was it a money issue?

Nick Oliveri: You know, it was just many different things. I feel like it was a lot of fun, and we got to do the West Coast. I did Ozzfest with QUEENS in I think it was 2000, or 2002? I think it's 2000. We didn't do the West Coast. We did it on our own. It was actually quite cool to do the West Coast with the band. With it being MONDO it was a lot of fun. It was cool. But, yeah, I think everything was going quite smooth. I think it was there for stronger, metal bands like BEHEMOTH. That really isn't our vibe. And it wasn't that people were hating us, and we weren't hating it, hating them. It was a really good time. But yeah, it seemed like it was maybe not our scene. Maybe if there's metal in MONDO, I don't know if there is, but if there is, there's a different style of metal, then. More on the rock and roll side, maybe MOTÖRHEAD's style than JUDAS PRIEST, or something, I guess you can say. I don't know if that makes sense. I don't know. And there's nothing against that. Whatever floats your boat. I'm down with similar music. I like a lot of metal stuff. But I don't know if they necessarily, if they really got MONDO. Not that we were ran off because of that. I'm saying… I don't know if it was really a fit. I don't know if it really made sense.

Rock My Monkey: So you don't think that the reaction you were getting, the positive response that you were getting from it was worth maybe say the expense of what it took to stay on that tour?

Nick Oliveri: Yes and no. I mean, yeah, it was pretty expensive to stay on that tour. It's a great thing for Ozzy's fans and stuff to have a free gig. It's cool, man. Right on. He's done a lot of cool tours. That's probably the coolest thing that he's done is that he's gone out and played for people for free. That's quite cool, you know? I think a free ticket is a great thing. But for a smaller band, it could be harder. It's harder to go out for free. Not to say like, "Oh, it's about the money." But if you got a band, it costs money. It's a little bit about money.

Rock My Monkey: Right, right, right.

Nick Oliveri: If you're doing it at home with your mom, and you're sixteen, and you got a cool band, you're like. "Let's go on tour, it's rad!" It doesn't matter. You go home and you're broke, but you had a great time and you played music, and you got to do what really matters is go out and rock. But you know, my guys have lives and mortgages and shit like that.

Rock My Monkey: Josh Homme told Kerang! magazine lately that the rift between you and him is tearing him apart, and that he kind of misses you. And you have said that you could have added what was missing from this most recent QUEENS CD. Is that friendship on the way to being mended, and do I smell a reunion anytime soon?

Nick Oliveri: Dude, I had no idea that… I actually said that about "Lullabies". I actually picked up the new record, and it's much different than what I thought it was going to be. And I tripped out when I heard it. I was, "Wow, this is different." And I think that's what's cool about it is that it is very, very different. It sounds weird at times. Some of it's more in a heavy kind of QUEENS kind of vibe, and some of it goes into like new territory for something called QUEENS OF THE STONE AGE, or even Josh, you know, doing, if he got it under his own name, like his name, you know? But I think, I think it's, you know, I don't know anything about a reunion. I think reunions are kind of weird. But you know what? It's Josh's band. I always liked playing music with Josh. If it happens, It'd be up to him. You know what I mean? Give me a phone call.

Rock My Monkey: So basically the friendship-

Nick Oliveri: I'd say yeah. Because it's fun to play music with the dude.

Rock My Monkey: So the friendship is definitely on the way to being mended, and if you guys were in the same room it'd be a cool thing?

Nick Oliveri: Yeah.

Rock My Monkey: Right on. Now, what do you think Nick brought to the CD as a co-producer that would not have been there otherwise?

Nick Oliveri: Nick, actually, what's great about Nick is he, the first time they ever did anything over at Studio 606 that was like live takes. I recorded a lot of the music with the guys in the band. Ben Thomas and Ben Perrier with Nick at Studio 606. And it was great. We went to tapes, and we did a bunch of tapes of songs. Not too many where it killed us. But I think, you know, I don't know, man. He kind of just let us do our thing. He brought his feel of tones and shit, and helped me find what I was looking for with tones. I'm pretty simple when it comes to stuff like that. I need more lows, I need more, I need the bass up, and I'm not real good with turning the knobs and stuff. Someone like Nick knows where to go for stuff like that. It's a no brainer. He's quick, and fast, and he's fun to hang out with. I think he brought a cool vibe of mellowness to it, you know, like, you know, relaxed and play the tunes, you know? And I think the more jammy songs came out cooler at Studio 606 than at Donner & Blitzen in Arcadia where I finished the record. I think songs like "Like A Bomb" or stuff like that — I can't think of something off the top of my head. It's been awhile since I listened to the record. Stuff like that actually I think came out cooler at Studio 606 then the studio in Arcadia where I finished the guitars and stuff like that out there.

Rock My Monkey: Do you ever get tired of people asking about any potential KYUSS reunion?

Nick Oliveri: Heh. That's another one up to Josh, bro.

Rock My Monkey: Really? Okay.

Nick Oliveri: Yeah. Well, Josh is, he was there with John [Garcia]. John and him basically did KYUSS for all four full-lengths and the EP on Man's Ruin. Those are the two guys that did all the records. I did the first two. Scott Reeder came in and he is a better bass player, and that's the reason why — he shreds. Okay, fair enough. But he did the last two. But John and Josh and Brant did the first, he did three of them, and then Alfredo did drums on the last one. So it's one of those things for me where it's Josh and John. Without John singing, there's no KYUSS, and without Josh playing guitar and who is the main songwriter for KYUSS, with Brant Bjork the first three, those are the guys. That's, if Josh is involved, it would have to be up to Josh to make that happen.

Check out the entire interview in text and MP3 format at this location.