According to metalinjection.com, Kyuss are pioneers of the stoner rock genre in the late ’80s and early ’90s, where they created waves in the rock and metal world before calling it quits in 1997. Founding drummer Brant Bjork recently spoke to Metal Hammer about how the band was told they could have been the next Metallica by their label and Bjork responded with “pass.”
“Our guy at the label would always say, ‘You guys will be the next Metallica’, and that bummed me out,” said Bjork. “I wanted to be this Kyuss! I felt like we fucking rocked and had hit the peak of our chemistry at the time, and Metallica were super-cool guys and really supportive, but seeing it all on that scale, it was just like, ‘This isn’t for me.’ If that’s the epitome of success in a rock band, it just seemed unrewarding.”
The artist adds: “They got up and played the same things every night, said the same things… I could tell it’d become traveling circus, a machine. I was still 20 years old, more attracted to what we were doing in terms of improvising onstage and being loose. I wanted Kyuss to go more in that direction.” Kyuss’ lineup included guitarist Josh Homme, bassists Nick Oliveri, Scott Reeder, vocalist John Garcia, and Bjork. The band has never reunited, which Oliveri was very angry about in 2022.
“It’s one of those things,” said Oliveri in an interview with Goetia Media. “I feel personally that it’s a fans’ band. When the band existed [until] ’95, with a record company push and all behind it, as a band, it got big. And the band broke up, and then years later, fans traded MP3s, CDs, cassettes, whatever, and it grew [much bigger] without any label push, without the band existing. So it’s a fans’ band; they took it further than we ever did.”
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