Nick Oliveri says former Kyuss members should be able to tour under band name

Kyuss bassist Nick Oliveri has said that he wishes he and his former bandmates could tour under their previous band name.

In 2012, Josh Homme filed a lawsuit against Kyuss Lives! – the reunited incarnation of the singer’s pre-Queens Of The Stone Age band – accusing them of “trademark infringement, misrepresentation [and] false designation”.

Homme was the original guitarist in Kyuss until their split in 1995 but did not take part in the band’s 2011 reunion tour under the Kyuss Lives! moniker.

A judge later ruled that vocalist John Garcia and drummer Brant Bjork could not release music under Kyuss Lives!, adding that future live shows under that name “might continue to subject them to liability for trademark infringement”.

Now, Oliveri has said he wishes that the former band members could still do gigs under the name.

Speaking in an interview with Spanish site GoetiaMedia at June’s Hellfest in Clisson, France, Oliveri reflected on the legal dispute. “It’s one of those things. I feel personally that it’s a fans’ band. When the band existed [from the late 1980s until] ’95, with a record company push and all behind it, as a band, it got to this height,” he said, raising his hand (via Blabbermouth).

“And the band broke up, and then years later, fans traded MP3s, CDs, cassettes, whatever, and it grew this big [raises his hand much higher] without any label push, without the band existing. So it’s a fans’ band; they took it further than we ever did.”

He continued: “[The fans] wanted us to play. I wish we were able to play. But I don’t have any ownership or stake in the name. Brant came up with the name; he didn’t have ownership in it. He left the band at one point. The existing members registered the name. So it’s just as simple as that.

“I kind of feel a lot of different ways about it. I feel like why do you wanna own the name if you wanna kill the band? Let us run with it and have a good time. We’re playing [the songs] with all respect to the music that we can, as close to it as we can. And the fans, we owe it to ’em.”

Last year it was revealed that Bjork said that he’d reached out to Homme to try and mend their relationship and discuss a possible reunion for the band.

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