Drummer Brant Bjork has revealed that he was not a fan of his band Kyuss being labelled as “the next Metallica” in the early-’90s.
Kyuss are considered one of the seminal names in stoner rock, formed in 1987 by future Queens Of The Stone Age frontman Josh Homme alongside vocalist John Garcia, guitarist Nick Oliveri, bassist Chris Cockrell and Bjork.
By the time of the release of their third studio album ‘Welcome To Sky Valley’ in 1994, the band were signed Elektra Records, the same label that was home to James Hetfield’s metal icons.
In a new interview with Metal Hammer, Bjork has spoken about the weight of being compared to their label mates at the time, noting that it was not the compliment that label executives might have imagined.
“Our guy at the label would always say, ‘You guys will be the next Metallica’, and that bummed me out,” Bjork said.
“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.”
Kyuss opened for Metallica on their 1993 ‘Nowhere Else To Roam’ tour, and Bjork has also reminisced about that period. “Supporting Metallica was fucking bananas,” he said. “It was weird; by the time our management told us about the offer, I’d already decided I didn’t want to be in Kyuss anymore. I felt like I was no longer jiving with the guys and whatever we’d had that was magical, it was gone. I didn’t want to stick around to watch this really magical ship sink into the sea.”
Bjork left the band in 1994 and the group would split a year later. A reformation took place in 2011 under the name Kyuss Lives! without Homme, with the Queens Of The Stone Age man suing his former bandmates for trademark infringement. A judge later found that Bjork and Garcia were not allowed to use the name.
In 2021, Bjork said he had reached out to Homme to try to mend their relationship, while Homme has also said that he is open to the idea of playing with the band again.
That same year, Bjork and Oliveri launched their new project Stöner, sharing the track ‘Red Stays Red’.
