Kyuss members Joshua Homme and Scott Reeder have filed a federal lawsuit against their former bandmates John Garcia and Brent Bjork citing trademark infringement and consumer fraud over Kyuss Lives!

Kyuss was a Rock band from Palm Desert, California featuring Joshua Homme, Scott Reeder, Brant Bjork and John Garcia. They captured attention in the early 90s by releasing five full length albums and a series of singles. Kyuss ended with a split LP with Queens of the Stone Age. It acted as a transitional album as the original lineup of Queens of the Stone Age featured exclusively members of Kyuss.

In 2010 John Garcia toured under the moniker “John Garcia Plays Kyuss”. Due to Joshua Homme having no desire to do any sort of reunion, the rest of the band reformed with the name Kyuss Lives! Kyuss Lives! spent 2011 touring the world and there is talk of a new album. All of this may be in jeopardy after Homme and Reeder filed federal suit against Garcia and Bjork for the rights of the Kyuss name.

Homme and Reeder issued the following statement:

“It sucks. To think we went to a meeting in January solely to help them with their request to continue Kyuss Lives!  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.”

Photo by Alyssa Fried