[Echoes]

Homme Comes Clean On Oliveri Firing

By Jonathan Cohen, N.Y.

Josh Homme has revealed for the first time why he fired longtime friend Nick Oliveri from Queens Of The Stone Age in 2004. Speaking to Zane Lowe tonight (July 6) on BBC Radio 1, Homme said he ordered Oliveri to leave the band after he independently confirmed Oliveri had been physically abusive to his girlfriend.

"A couple years ago, I spoke to Nick about a rumor I heard," Homme recalled. "I said, 'If I ever find out that this is true, I can't know you, man.' Because music and my life are the same thing, there's no rules until something massive happens. [Nick] was over here [in England] with [QOTSA vocalist Mark] Lanegan and something happened again, and he almost didn't make it out of the country. That's not music anymore."

Oliveri could not be reached for comment at deadline.

Homme says he will reject pleas from QOTSA fans to give Oliveri a second chance. "They don't understand what it's like to just sit there and feel helpless," he said. "When you have your chance to make your statement, which for me was firing Nick, that's what I did."

Homme and Oliveri have frequently exchanged words via the media in recent months; Homme was also involved in a brawl over Oliveri's firing last November in Los Angeles with Dwarves singer Blag Dahlia, a close friend of the former QOTSA bassist.

"If you're trying to be good about something and everybody else around you isn't, what do you do?," Homme said. "Do you fight fire with fire or sit there and burn?"


Queens Of The Stone Age is in the midst of international touring in support of its latest Interscope album, "Lullabies To Paralyze." A fall North American tour with Nine Inch Nails begins Sept. 16 in San Diego.


http://www.billboard.com/bb/daily/article_...t_id=1000974365

[Echoes]

wow - a rumour similar to this had been floating around for a while but i guess this settles it! after the whole throwing bottles into the crowd shit, this must have been the last straw! credit to josh for doing the right thing

if you want to listen to a recorded stream of the show the bombshell was dropped on, you can get it here by clicking the audio icon on the right of "Wed 6 July"

[girlfriday]

I hadn't heard that rumour before, last I heard was that they were both bigging each other up and Nick put out an open message to Josh saying he wanted to get back in the band. Never dreamed that would be the reason. Fuck. Josh definately did the right thing and I can't believe that he kept it in so long. On lighter note really loved his acoustic 'the lost art of keeping a secret' one of my favorite songs.

[zeb]

That's very disappointing, not because I want Nick back in the band but because as it turns out Nick really is a shithead.

j.

[Echoes]

not sure what the future holds for him now


he'll certainly never get let back in to QOTSA now; and i wonder how his mondo generator fans are going to react to the news?

[zeb]

bradley, on Jul 9 2005, 10:01 PM, said:

not sure what the future holds for him now


he'll certainly never get let back in to QOTSA now; and i wonder how his mondo generator fans are going to react to the news?

If you enjoy the work of Mondo Generator then you probably aren't going to care too much about how Nick handles his relationships.

j.

[Echoes]

not so sure about that - over on the QOTSA boards there are a lot of people in both bands who have now very much set against MG. I missed a gig by them, are they any good? what about the Dwarves that Nick Oliveri also plays with?

[zeb]

bradley, on Jul 12 2005, 11:50 PM, said:

not so sure about that - over on the QOTSA boards there are a lot of people in both bands who have now very much set against MG. I missed a gig by them, are they any good? what about the Dwarves that Nick Oliveri also plays with?

I don't really dig Mondo Generator and I haven't really heard much of the Dwarves. Both are a little too screamy for my liking; I think Nick pretty much used all of his A material in Queens.

j.