Nick Oliveri Claims He’ll Rejoin Queens of the Stone Age for One Night
Original Queens of the Stone Age bassist Nick Oliveri has claimed he will reunite with the band for a few songs at the group’s upcoming Halloween gig at Los Angeles’ Forum. “Josh [Homme] asked me to come up and do six songs with Queens, like an encore set,” the bassist told NME. “A reunion, but not a reunion. I’m going to get up and play some bass and sing some songs at the end of the show. It should be an interesting night.”
In 2004, frontman Homme fired Oliveri, citing his drug use and the effect it had on his playing as cause. Later the singer-guitarist confirmed rumors that he had discovered Oliveri physically assaulting his girlfriend. Over the past decade, Homme has said that the pair remained friends, and eventually Oliveri provided backing vocals on the song “If I Had a Tail” on Queens’ 2013 release …Like Clockwork.
This past April, the bassist appeared onstage with the band for the first time in a decade to sing the Songs for the Deaf tune “You Think I Ain’t Worth a Dollar, but I Feel Like a Millionaire” at a Portland, Oregon concert. “It was easy,” Homme said at the time. “It’s nice to know someone since you were a little kid, and still know them.”
Oliveri, who will also be opening up for Queens of the Stone Age on Halloween, told NME that any kind of permanent reunion would be on Homme’s terms. “It’s up to him,” the bassist said. “I put myself out there a few different times in the past 10 years at Queens shows. I’d go and see them play and say, ‘Hey man, I’m here! Do you want me to sing a song?’ I stopped asking him after a while, and then he asked me. It’s pretty much just when he wants to do something, these days.”