Kyuss drummer Brant Bjork says he’s reached out to Josh Homme to try and mend their relationship and discuss a possible reunion for the band.
Back in 2012, Homme filed a lawsuit against the members of Kyuss Lives!, the reunited incarnation of the singer’s pre-Queens Of The Stone Age band. Homme was the original guitarist in Kyuss until their split in 1995, but did not take part in the band’s 2011 reunion tour under the Kyuss Lives! moniker.
A judge later ruled that year that Bjork and vocalist John Garcia were not permitted to release any recordings under the name Kyuss Lives! and warned them that future concerts under the Kyuss Lives! mark “might continue to subject them to liability for trademark infringement”.
In a new interview with the Hobo On The Radio podcast, Bjork referenced comments made last year by Homme, who said that he’s open to the idea of playing with Kyuss again, and wants inter-band relationships to be mended.
“It’s an interesting comment, and I can totally relate to his feeling, because I was really bummed the way that Kyuss broke up in ’95; I didn’t want it to end that way,” Bjork said.
“So what we should have done is never broke up. Had we known as young dudes — which, let’s face it, we were young, and it’s hard to do — had we known how to keep a band together, we could have just had that band moving all along and taking breaks from time to time to pursue other things.
“But, yeah, it has this kind of stop and rebirth and reinvention, and, yeah, I share his frustration. But there’s always a way to do it, and it just takes communication. I’ve always said if you communicate, you can relate, and if you can relate, you can create. That’s how it works.”
Revealing that he’d reached out to Homme after encouragement by former QOTSA and Kyuss member Nick Olivieri, Bjork added: “As far as a Kyuss reunion happening, that was my attempt at not necessarily getting the band back together but at the very least developing some communication with Josh.
“And it seemed at first that it might be time and [we] actually [might] be able to connect. But it didn’t happen. That was months and months and months ago, so it’s clear that it’s not gonna move forward. And who knows? Maybe he puts Kyuss together and puts his own version together or whatever. I don’t know what he’s gonna do. We’ll have to just see.”
In the interview last year, Homme said he was “in full support of Kyuss Lives! and I would go to the shows and I told them as much, until what Brant and, unfortunately, what John tried to do. And that was terrible”.
Of a future reunion, he added: “There have been times I thought it cannot end that way, and the only real way to end it correctly now would be to play. And because they sort of perverted the punctuation and they knocked the wing off this beautiful dragon that’s an ice sculpture, and the only way to put the motherfucking wing back on would be to [play again].”