Kyuss Lives! may not be able to live up to their name much longer. Josh Homme and Scott Reeder have filed a lawsuit against their former Kyuss bandmates, vocalist John Garcia and drummer Brant Bjork, for using the early ’90s Palm Desert stoner-rock outfit’s name. According to a statement released by Reeder and Homme, the pair had started talks with the rest of the ex-Kyuss crew in January to negotiate terms of Garcia and Bjork’s use of the name, but found out recently that all four musicians weren’t on the same page. The duo are suing for trademark infringement and consumer fraud.
“It sucks,” Homme and Reeder say in a statement. “With open arms, we made every attempt to help them continue Kyuss Lives! respectfully. Only to discover while they looked us in the eye, Kyuss Lives! management and band had filed federal documents in 2011 in an attempt to steal the name Kyuss. This is desperately what we were trying to avoid. It’s a sad day for us and for John — but most of all for the fans. What a needless mess.”
Homme hasn’t exactly been the biggest supporter of a Kyuss reunion effort. In 2010, Homme, who was busy with QOTSA/Foo Fighters/Led Zeppelin supergroup Them Crooked Vultures, told an interviewer that he was “too proud” of Kyuss’ legacy to “rub [his] dick” on it” with a reunion tour (via Blabbermouth). Homme also fired Kyuss bassist Nick Oliveri, who plays in Kyuss Lives!, from Queens of the Stone Age in 2004. Oliveri faced his own legal problems last week, pleading not guilty Friday to five charges stemming from a July 2011 domestic violence arrest, including two counts of possession of a controlled substance with a firearm and a misdemeanor count of “resisting, obstructing or delaying a peace officer.” TMZ reports he could face 15 years in prison if convicted.
