Queens of the Stone Age frontman Josh Homme has opened up about the emotional difficulty of parting ways with bassist Nick Oliveri in 2004, speaking on Spin.
Homme was discussing the departure of Oliveri, who left the band at a moment when Queens of the Stone Age were reaching new heights of mainstream success following the release of their album Songs for the Deaf. The interviewer recalled that Homme gave few public statements about the split at the time.
The Spin: “When [bassist/vocalist] Nick [Oliveri] left the band in 2004, I think you and I did the only interview you gave about it at the time.”
“It was a tough time,” Homme said. “People don’t understand the stoicism of saying, I’m gonna try taking the classy approach. I don’t want to rip my friend up. I don’t think a lot of people really understood what was going on at the time. Also, people don’t know how difficult it is to reach a point where you have to fire your friend. Naysayers say nay. That’s all they can say, and you can’t pay attention to that. I would say, try firing your best friend and see how much you like it. It’s not easy. It’s not pleasurable.”
The interviewer noted the difficult timing of the departure, as it came just as the band was entering a new level of visibility and popularity.
“Success is a really bizarre thing and no advice will help,” Homme continued. “Every situation is situational and you’re forced to sort of learn on the job. You don’t know how you’re going to deal with it, especially when you never expected it. The mainstream bent toward us, and there was never any intention of that happening. Negotiating those feelings is very complex.”
Homme’s remarks came during a discussion about the band’s growth and the challenges that accompanied their rising mainstream profile in the early 2000s.
Oliveri was a core member of Queens of the Stone Age from 1998 to 2004 and played bass on the albums Rated R and Songs for the Deaf. Songs for the Deaf became a critical and commercial success, reaching gold status in 2003 with over 900,000 copies sold. The album produced two major singles: “No One Knows” and “Go with the Flow,” both of which became hits on radio and MTV. “No One Knows” was voted Triple J radio’s number one song and peaked just outside the Billboard Top 40.
The band’s touring schedule during this period was intense. Queens of the Stone Age performed 153 concerts in 2003, including a string of headline dates in Australia in January 2004. The constant touring, combined with the pressures of sudden mainstream success, took its toll on the group. Homme and Oliveri had worked together heavily over their five-year partnership and eventually burned out on each other, leading to Oliveri’s departure from the band in early 2004.
In the years that followed, Oliveri and Homme reconnected. They worked together in the band Kyuss, and Oliveri recorded backing vocals on Queens of the Stone Age’s album …Like Clockwork. The two last met at the funeral of former Queens of the Stone Age member Mark Lanegan in February and were in good spirits as they remembered him together.
