Nick Oliveri says it “took time to heal” after firing from Queens Of The Stone Age, and reveals the last time he saw Josh Homme

Former Queens Of The Stone Age bassist Nick Oliveri has discussed his firing in a new interview

Former Queens Of The Stone Age bassist Nick Oliveri has discussed his relationship with Queens frontman Josh Homme in a new interview, stating that it “took some time to heal” following his acrimonious exit from the band in 2004, and revealing the last time he saw Homme in person.

“You know, we’ve know each other for so long it’s just weird to be at each others’ throats,” he tells Eon Music. “You can’t force somebody to play music with you. It ran its course just playing music together. We’re still friends, it’s just that we don’t make music together right now. We did so much in a five-year period, in a concentrated period, so much work, that we kind of burned out on each other. So, it is what it is, and he kind of wanted the band to go in a different direction anyway, so he’s taken it there, and that’s where he wants it to go, and it’s great for him. Unfortunately, it’s one of those things were, it used to bother me a lot, but it doesn’t anymore. It took some time to heal over some things, and for him too.”

Oliveri goes on to confirm that he last saw Homme at the funeral of Screaming Trees frontman and regular Queens collaborator Mark Lanegan, who died in February aged 57.

“I just saw [Homme] at Mark Lanegan’s funeral,” Oliveri says, “and we were in good spirits remembering Mark. It was a good memorial for him. We had all the crew there, the whole band was there that was from that era, at that funeral, except [Mark Lanegan]; he was the only one not there.”

Oliveri was fired from Queens Of The Stone Age in early 2004 due to Oliveri’s increasingly erratic behaviour and Homme’s belief that he had been physically abusive to his girlfriend. 

“A couple years ago, I spoke to Nick about a rumour I heard,” Homme told BBC Radio 1 in 2005. “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. [Oliveri] was over here [in England] with Lanegan and something happened again, and he almost didn’t make it out of the country. That’s not music anymore.”

The incident was one of a number of controversies to have blighted Oliveri’s career. The bassist was arrested in 2011 following a stand-off with a SWAT team in Los Angeles; the arrest was the result of an argument between Oliveri and his then-girlfriend, during which he was accused of hitting her and locking them both inside his apartment.

Oliveri discussed the incident in a 2014 interview with Desert Sun, stating: “It sucks that it happened. I have no excuse”, though later claiming that he didn’t intend to force his partner to stay in the house, labelling such reports as “ridiculous.” 

Josh Homme has also recently been embroiled in domestic abuse allegations, with former partner and Distillers frontwoman Brody Dalle alleging earlier this year that the frontman “head-butted” her and was verbally abusive towards her towards the end of their relationship. 

Homme claimed that Dalle was physically abusive to him during their marriage, claiming his ex-wife also called him “derogatory names.” Both parties filed domestic violence-related restraining orders against their former spouse.