Josh Homme has opened up about the challenge of parting ways with Queens of the Stone Age bassist Nick Oliveri in 2004, speaking on Spin.
The Queens of the Stone Age frontman discussed how the band’s unexpected rise in mainstream popularity coincided with the difficult personnel decision. Spin noted that Homme rarely spoke about the split at the time and chose to handle it with restraint.
The interviewer recalled: “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 then brought up the timing of the departure. “Especially the timing of it, just as the band was really hitting another gear of visibility and popularity after Songs for the Deaf.”
Homme reflected on the broader challenge of sudden success. “Success is a really bizarre thing and no advice will help. 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 made these comments while discussing how the band navigated the unexpected mainstream breakthrough and the difficult decisions that came with it during that period.
The firing came in early 2004, soon after Songs for the Deaf achieved major commercial success. Released on August 27, 2002, the album had debuted at number 4 in the UK and number 17 on the Billboard 200 chart in the US. The record’s success brought Queens of the Stone Age into a new level of visibility that neither Homme nor the band had anticipated.
The split between Homme and Oliveri remained largely unspoken for many years. The two musicians did not perform together again until 2013, when Oliveri provided backing vocals on “If I Had A Tail” from the band’s album …Like Clockwork. The following year, he joined Queens of the Stone Age on stage for the first time in a decade in Portland, Oregon.
The relationship between Homme and Oliveri improved after they crossed paths at their bandmate Mark Lanegan’s funeral in 2022. This led to a full reunion on stage on April 24, 2026, in Joshua Tree, California, marking their first live performance together in twelve years. The show was part of another leg of Queens of the Stone Age’s Catacombs Tour.
