Back in March 2012, Josh Homme and Scott Reeder, both formerly of stoner rock pioneers Kyuss, filed a lawsuit in a United States federal court in an effort to prevent current Kyuss Lives! band members (and former Kyuss band members) John Garcia and Brant Bjork from using the name Kyuss. On Monday 13 August, a federal judge ruled on the side of Homme and Reeder stating that current touring line-up of Kyuss Lives! cannot use “the Kyuss mark in any capacity unless the word ‘Lives’ follows the word ‘Kyuss’ in equally prominent lettering.” Furthermore, the name Kyuss cannot be used “in conjunction with any studio album, live album, or other audio recording.” In the end, the judge also remarked that it might be in the best interests of the new line-up to seek a new name.
The lawsuit from Homme and Reeder came about after both claimed that they had exhausted “every attempt to help [Garcia and Bjork] 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.”
The entire ruling and court report can be found here.
Since its formation, Kyuss Lives! has toured both Europe and North America with Garcia and Bjork alongside former Kyuss and Queens of the Stone Age bassist Nick Oliveri and Belgian guitarist Bruno Fevery. Additionally, the band has claimed to have a live album and new studio album in the works.
Kyuss, in its original version, formed in Palm Desert, CA in 1987, and became known as Kyuss in 1991 with Homme, Garcia, Bjork, and Oliveri in its ranks. Their first album, “Wretch,” was released in the same year, but it wouldn’t be until 1992’s “Blues for the Red Sun” that the ‘true’ Kyuss sound began to surface to the public. Their self-titled album would be released on Elektra Records in 1994, followed by the band’s break-up roughly one year later. Following their disbanding, Homme would venture on to form Queens of the Stone Age, and Garcia would perform with Slo-Burn and Unida.
