NICK OLIVERI Says 'There Hasn't Been Any Talk' Of New Collaboration With JOSH HOMME

Greg Prato of UGO recently conducted an interview with Nick Oliveri (KYUSS, QUEENS OF THE STONE AGE, MONDO GENERATOR) about Nick's involvement with KYUSS LIVES!, the project featuring three-quarters of KYUSS (the influential American stoner rock/metal band, originally from Palm Desert, California). A couple of excerpts from the chat follow below.

UGO: Was Josh Homme asked if he wanted to participate [KYUSS LIVES!]?

Nick Oliveri: I don't know if he was asked. I don't think he was. John [Garcia, vocals] didn't think that he wanted to with the three bands that he's already in. I recorded the new MONDO GENERATOR at Josh's studio, and I asked Josh, "Is it cool if I go and do this thing? What do you think?" And he said, "Go do it man. Have some fun!" Josh has in his studio a framed poster of GARCIA PLAYS KYUSS in there, so he's proud of the KYUSS thing as far as I know. He's cool with it, and doing [THEM CROOKED] VULTURES, EAGLES [OF DEATH METAL], and QUEENS [OF THE STONE AGE], I'm sure he's staying busy.

UGO: Are you and Josh on good terms again?

Nick Oliveri: Yeah, absolutely. Whenever I'm in L.A. and they're [QUEENS OF THE STONE AGE] in L.A. — I'm going to go see them play, I believe they're going to be playing April 12th, and I'll just be getting back from this. They're playing L.A. playing their first record in its entirety, so I'm going to go check that out, because that was a cool record. Just go and hang out with him. I recorded in his new studio and it's a nice place. It was great. He came down every day and said "Hey." It's been seven years, it's been some time. It's crazy to think that it's been that long. It's good to be able to see him and hang out with him. It's great.

UGO: Is there any talk of you and Josh working together again?

Nick Oliveri: There hasn't been any talk about it. As a matter of fact, the last time I saw them play was a benefit for Brian [O'Connor] in L.A., from the EAGLES [OF DEATH METAL]. I was down there and I mentioned to them, "Why don't I come up and do 'Millionaire' or something, and sing it and not play bass?" He was like, "Nah, I don't think that's a good idea yet." It's kind of in his court for stuff like that. I don't think he wants to give anybody the wrong idea. I don't necessarily know if that would happen. And he's got a good band — he's taking the band in the direction he wants it to go. Hey, it's all good.

UGO: That's too bad, because there was certainly a special chemistry between you and Josh.

Nick Oliveri: Yeah, I definitely know there's a chemistry there. I know my songs that I write are definitely better with his hand on them, and his parts put into them, and his production on them, too. But you know, I don't know if he necessarily feels that way about my input on his! [Laughs] He's taken the band in a direction he wants it to go, and that's cool. I kind of feel that QUEENS is a totally different band now than what it was. But who knows?!

Read the entire interview from UGO.