Replies

At this point in time, both Nick and Mark Lanegan have split from QOTSA. Nick got fired by Josh and Mark left right after he heard the news, so he could concentrate 100% on Mark Lanegan Band.

Basically I'll just post the interview with Josh, he explains the whole thing:

------

In a press release issued last month, the band's management stated that "a number of incidents occurring over the last 18 months led to the decision that the two can no longer maintain a working partnership in the band". The vague statement fueled speculation that rampant drug use was responsible for Oliveri's removal, but Homme said the problem wasn't a direct result of partying, but rather the way Oliveri behaved when he was wasted — and even when wasn't.

"Our whole band is full of hard partiers," Homme said. "We have put more people in rehab than Mardi Gras. But when you get drunk, you either get drunk with class, or you get drunk like a slobbering, toothless f---. And that's just an analogy. It's not just drinking, it's how you live your life."

Homme said there were dozens of times Oliveri got the band kicked out of parties or banned from hotels. Homme added that he played a major role in keeping Oliveri out of jail by "snowing his probation officer" and smoothing out countless other tense, volatile situations. "He's a tornado, and a tornado just destroys and goes on to the next city," Homme said. "I'm in the tornado cleanup crew, and all I ever see is his detritus and I'm sick of it.

"We used to have a thing we called 'Jekyll and Hyde' where, whenever Nick did something, we blamed Nick in the press, and whenever I did something, we blamed Nick in the press," Homme explained. "But I think Nick started believing our press and thinking that he's gotta be the next Sid Vicious or something. And I think Sid Vicious is a badass, but also I think Sid Vicious is a dumb drug addict who couldn't play bass and never wrote a song, and if he stayed alive most guys would have went, 'This guy's a worthless piece of sh--.' And so I don't think that's something to aspire to."

Homme said he was amused by Oliveri's antics for a while, but when the bassist became noticeably more mean-spirited, his amusement waned. When it became apparent to Homme that Oliveri's irresponsibility and cruelty was more than an act for the media, he realized the relationship couldn't continue.

"He really doesn't even know why I kicked him out," Homme said. "In the press, he admitted he threw bottles into the audiences, but he's saying, 'I do it for the fans. Isn't that what they really want?' But what Nick really did was come up to me between the first and second song and say, 'This audience isn't good enough — they're sh--,' and then he threw full bottles of Corona at them, like a baseball pitcher. Is that for the fans? That's not my style. I get drunk with the fans, I don't throw bottles at them."

The final straw came after a show in Australia in which Oliveri trashed all of his equipment, then later got the Queens banned from a hotel in Perth. "You can just put that in a box with the other hotels we've been banned from," Homme said. "You know Nick's been accused of a lot of things, and basically all of them are true, and I can live with the sh-- I've done, but I can't be tied to the sh-- I haven't done."

After Homme decided to part ways with Oliveri, he drove to the bassist's house to confront him. Even though Oliveri had caused Homme plenty of headaches, the two also shared lots of good times, and the frontman felt he owed his "bro" an in-person explanation. "He was bummed, man," Homme recalled. "It was the only time that an irrational guy was rational. He was going, 'I don't want this to happen.' But when you see a guy winging bottles at the audience, you eventually just say, 'F--- this!' If you don't, then you're just somebody's bitch."

Homme admitted that the musical chemistry between he and Oliveri helped drive the last two Queens of the Stone Age records, and he added that he'll miss touring with Oliveri and would be open to working him in the future if he can change his behavior. "I still love the guy, man. And Nick had a vital spot in the band," Homme said with a hint of regret. "Nick has great energy. He scares people, I guess."

A few seconds of silence followed while Homme pondered the statement. "You know what? I don't want to scare people," he finally said. "I want to enrapture people with music. And I want them to get the goose bumps when they hear our album. I don't give a f--- if they're scared about looking at us."

"I write 90 percent of the music. Which I never say, because I always try to stay mellow about it," he said. "I wrote most of the music and took care of all of the business, and kept it so our bass player could just play for an hour and a half a day and that's all he had to do. If you're wondering if Queens has no balls, you don't have to wonder. If you want to see balls, go see Nick with the Dwarves, because I understand he's playing with them again." Homme added that when Oliveri played with the band in 1997, he would expose himself.

------

So there ya have it. What he did isn't cool. If you've ever seen the video for "First It Giveth", you know what a bunch of maniacal freaks QOTSA really are. But, you can be a huge rock star, have the rock star attitude, and still be cool to people. You can get drunk as hell, pick fights with other bands, get naked, break all of your gear, and still not be a total 100% jerk. But, when you start talking sh!t about the kids who are coming out and paying $20 (or more at a festival) to see you rock out, you can't be a jerk to those people.

All in all I don't think Nick is a bad dude and I really hope that he can look at himself and say "what an asshole I was" and get over himself a bit. I mean dude, he is living everyone's dream of rock stardom! The least you can do is be cool to people who enable you to be a rock star. As he's said, the best band playing in the world today is finished, and it's too bad. Hopefully he can get it together and get back with QOTSA. I think that when Mark Lanegan joined up for vocal duties that they really had something goin'!

If you haven't seen the video for "First It Giveth", you've gotta get it! I have a copy.