Nick Oliveri, Photo: Wikipedia
By: Staff
Former Queens of the Stone Age bassist/vocalist Nick Oliveri has been arrested for domestic battery after an hours-long stand-off with a SWAT team yesterday (July 12th). After the arrest, police also found an unregistered loaded gun in the bassist’s house.
According to NME, police came to Oliveri’s home after a neighbor heard a potentially violent altercation between the bassist and his girlfriend.
Oliveri’s girlfriend told reporters that the day before, he had hit her during an explosive argument, after which she promptly left. The next day (July 12th), she came back to Oliveri’s house to take her property and move out, but he locked the two of them inside the house and another argument began.
After a 5-hour stand-off with a SWAT team, Oliveri eventually let his girlfriend out and police in, surrendering to an arrest on charges of a domestic violence felony. Upon searching the bass player’s house, police found a loaded “high powered rifle”. His bail was set at $100,000, which has since been posted.
Domestic violence is what originally caused Queens of the Stone Age guitarist and singer, Josh Homme, to fire Oliveri from the band. Homme originally didn’t want to give his reason for Oliveri’s termination, but the cries of fans (who loved Oliveri’s out-of-control stage presence and bass playing) prompted him to eventually reveal that violence against his girlfriend was the cause.
Oliveri’s most recent musical activity has been a reunion of Kyuss without Josh Homme (who played guitar for the band) under the moniker Kyuss Lives!
