On Friday night, in the middle of the California desert, Josh Homme introduced someone to the Joshua Tree Retreat Center crowd as "one of the people that I love dearly." Then Nick Oliveri walked onstage, and for the first time in twelve years, the original Queens of the Stone Age bassist was back where he belongs.
Oliveri performed lead vocals on "Auto Pilot," the slow-burning Rated R deep cut, singing alongside Homme and current QOTSA bassist Michael Shuman. At one point during the performance, Oliveri stepped down into the photo pit to interact with fans. It was loose, charged, and unmistakably real. The show marked the opening night of QOTSA’s Catacombs Tour, which the band first launched in October 2025 before pausing and resuming with this Joshua Tree date on April 24.
For anyone who hasn’t been keeping the timeline, here’s why this matters: Homme and Oliveri go back to the early ’90s, when they were both in Kyuss. When Homme formed Queens of the Stone Age, Oliveri joined as bassist and co-vocalist in 1998, helping shape the sound of two of the band’s most celebrated records. 2000’s Rated R and 2002’s Songs for the Deaf are both pillar albums in the desert rock canon, and Oliveri’s snarling vocal presence and songwriting were a huge part of what made those records hit the way they did.
His departure in 2004 was messy. Homme reportedly fired Oliveri over concerns about aggressive behavior toward fans and domestic abuse allegations. In 2011, Oliveri was arrested following a SWAT standoff, eventually pleading out to probation and anger management. It was the kind of fallout that typically ends band relationships permanently.
But Homme and Oliveri never fully severed ties. Oliveri contributed backing vocals on "If I Had a Tail" from 2013’s ...Like Clockwork, and he joined QOTSA onstage in Portland in 2014 for a one-song appearance on "You Think I Ain’t Worth a Dollar, But I Feel Like a Millionaire." That was the last time the two had shared a stage until Friday.
The two also reportedly reconnected at the funeral of their former bandmate Mark Lanegan in 2022, and in a Consequence interview last year, Homme didn’t rule out a Kyuss reunion, saying: "It always left me with a strange feeling, because it’s, like, you wanna set things right. I don’t have negative feelings about anybody. None of that stuff matters. So, yeah, it’s possible."
Before bringing Oliveri out at Joshua Tree, Homme spoke briefly about loss and gratitude: "We've had the opportunity, the blessing, and the chance to play with some pretty amazing people, and some of them aren't here anymore. Those people are Natasha Shneider and Mark. But one of the people that still is, that I love dearly, is mister Nick Oliveri."
Whether this signals anything more permanent remains to be seen. The Catacombs Tour wraps May 1 in Lincoln, California, followed by a UK and European run starting in late June. After that, Queens join Foo Fighters for a North American stadium tour beginning in August. Plenty of stages between now and then for another guest appearance, or for the moment at Joshua Tree to remain exactly what it was: a brief, loaded reunion in the desert where it all started.