Queens Of The Stone Age have played live with Nick Oliveri for the first time since 2014 – check out footage below.
Oliveri played with the band from 1998 until 2004, contributing to their classic albums ‘Rated R’ (2000) and ‘Songs For The Deaf’ (2002), and had played with frontman Josh Homme before that in the stoner rock group Kyuss.
He was fired from the band in 2004, but reunited with them to provide backing vocals on ‘If I Had A Tail’ from 2013’s ‘…Like Clockwork’, and then joined them on stage for the first time in a decade at a 2014 show in Portland.
On Friday night (April 24), he ended a 12-year wait by joining them again during a show at the Joshua Tree Retreat Center in Joshua Tree, California. Homme introduced him as “one of the people that I love dearly”, and Oliveri contributed vocals to the ‘Rated R’ song ‘Auto Pilot’.
Watch fan-captured footage here:
When Oliveri was let go from the band, it was initially said that it was due to his aggressive treatment of the band’s fans, but it was later suggested that the decision was made in connection with allegations of domestic abuse against his girlfriend.
In 2022, he opened up about leaving the band, saying his time with the band had “run its course”, but said he and Homme were “still friends”.
He continued: “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 where, 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,” he added.
Oliveri released two career-spanning solo compilations in 2024, titled ‘N.O. Hits At All Vols. 8’ and ‘N.O. Hits At All Vols. 9’.
Meanwhile, QOTSA will be opening for Foo Fighters on their massive North American stadium tour this year. The band have so far announced a slew of dates in Toronto, Detroit, Chicago, Philadelphia, Nashville, Vancouver, Las Vegas and other cities, and you can find any remaining tickets here.
Elsewhere, watch Josh Homme and Norah Jones cover Frank and Nancy Sinatra’s ‘Somethin’ Stupid’.
