Biography
From 1998 through 2004 Nick Oliveri handled bass and vocals in Queens of the Stone Age, yet he also counts among the founding members of stoner-metal trailblazers Kyuss. Beyond those two groups he has issued numerous solo projects while lending his talents to Winnebago Deal, the Mark Lanegan Band, Masters of Reality, Turbonegro, and Moistboyz; he has likewise held a slot in the shock-punk unit the Dwarves and leads the punk-metal band Mondo Generator.
Raised in California’s Coachella Valley, a modest Palm Desert resort town close to Joshua Tree National Monument, Oliveri struck up an early friendship with guitarist Josh Homme. The pair soon began rehearsing punk songs in bedrooms to escape the desert heat, and once singer John Garcia and drummer Brant Bjork joined them Kyuss formed in the late 1980s. Eschewing the era’s dominant hard-rock trends such as thrash or glam, the quartet leaned toward the slow, down-tuned riffs of classic Black Sabbath while still revealing Oliveri’s punk sensibilities. Their surroundings shaped both sound and method, leading the band to cultivate fans through all-night “generator parties” staged deep in the desert. An early compilation, Wretch, appeared in 1991 yet never fully conveyed the group’s live power; however, with the rise of kindred acts like Soundgarden and Alice in Chains the timing proved right, and Kyuss delivered one of the decade’s most underappreciated yet influential statements, 1992’s Blues for the Red Sun.
Oliveri soon felt distanced from Kyuss’s evolving direction and pushed for a stronger punk orientation, prompting his exit and subsequent entry into the Dwarves. Performing under the pseudonym Rex Everything—an allusion to his penchant for smashing equipment—he contributed to several Dwarves recordings, including 1997’s Dwarves Are Young and Good Looking. Toward the end of the decade he launched Mondo Generator, taking its name from a Kyuss track he had written for Blues for the Red Sun, and the project maintained his confrontational punk approach. Although a full set of songs was tracked at the time, the material remained unreleased until 2000, when it surfaced as Cocaine Rodeo. The same period also saw Oliveri reunite with Homme—Kyuss having split in 1997—in the newly formed Queens of the Stone Age, whose sound proved broader than either musician’s prior work. The band’s releases—its 1998 self-titled debut, 2000’s Rated R, and 2002’s Songs for the Deaf—brought the commercial recognition Kyuss had never achieved, quickly positioning Queens of the Stone Age among hard rock’s most celebrated outfits. Oliveri further participated in multiple installments of Homme’s Desert Sessions series and appeared on two Melissa Auf der Maur projects: the 2002 live recording by the Black Sabbath tribute band Hand of Doom and her 2004 solo debut.
Mounting friction between Oliveri and Homme led to his departure from Queens of the Stone Age in 2004, after which he promptly issued the solo album Demolition Day. He maintained ties with both the Dwarves and Mondo Generator, and in 2011 he rejoined John Garcia in the short-lived Kyuss Lives! reunion. Under the name Nick Oliveri’s Uncontrollable he returned with another solo effort, Leave Me Alone, in 2014. The following year he joined the Svetlanas on bass, and in early 2017 Heavy Psych Sounds issued the first installment of his career-spanning N.O. Hits at All retrospective. Two additional volumes followed later that year, with parts four and five arriving in 2018.
Raised in California’s Coachella Valley, a modest Palm Desert resort town close to Joshua Tree National Monument, Oliveri struck up an early friendship with guitarist Josh Homme. The pair soon began rehearsing punk songs in bedrooms to escape the desert heat, and once singer John Garcia and drummer Brant Bjork joined them Kyuss formed in the late 1980s. Eschewing the era’s dominant hard-rock trends such as thrash or glam, the quartet leaned toward the slow, down-tuned riffs of classic Black Sabbath while still revealing Oliveri’s punk sensibilities. Their surroundings shaped both sound and method, leading the band to cultivate fans through all-night “generator parties” staged deep in the desert. An early compilation, Wretch, appeared in 1991 yet never fully conveyed the group’s live power; however, with the rise of kindred acts like Soundgarden and Alice in Chains the timing proved right, and Kyuss delivered one of the decade’s most underappreciated yet influential statements, 1992’s Blues for the Red Sun.
Oliveri soon felt distanced from Kyuss’s evolving direction and pushed for a stronger punk orientation, prompting his exit and subsequent entry into the Dwarves. Performing under the pseudonym Rex Everything—an allusion to his penchant for smashing equipment—he contributed to several Dwarves recordings, including 1997’s Dwarves Are Young and Good Looking. Toward the end of the decade he launched Mondo Generator, taking its name from a Kyuss track he had written for Blues for the Red Sun, and the project maintained his confrontational punk approach. Although a full set of songs was tracked at the time, the material remained unreleased until 2000, when it surfaced as Cocaine Rodeo. The same period also saw Oliveri reunite with Homme—Kyuss having split in 1997—in the newly formed Queens of the Stone Age, whose sound proved broader than either musician’s prior work. The band’s releases—its 1998 self-titled debut, 2000’s Rated R, and 2002’s Songs for the Deaf—brought the commercial recognition Kyuss had never achieved, quickly positioning Queens of the Stone Age among hard rock’s most celebrated outfits. Oliveri further participated in multiple installments of Homme’s Desert Sessions series and appeared on two Melissa Auf der Maur projects: the 2002 live recording by the Black Sabbath tribute band Hand of Doom and her 2004 solo debut.
Mounting friction between Oliveri and Homme led to his departure from Queens of the Stone Age in 2004, after which he promptly issued the solo album Demolition Day. He maintained ties with both the Dwarves and Mondo Generator, and in 2011 he rejoined John Garcia in the short-lived Kyuss Lives! reunion. Under the name Nick Oliveri’s Uncontrollable he returned with another solo effort, Leave Me Alone, in 2014. The following year he joined the Svetlanas on bass, and in early 2017 Heavy Psych Sounds issued the first installment of his career-spanning N.O. Hits at All retrospective. Two additional volumes followed later that year, with parts four and five arriving in 2018.
Albums
Singles
Live
