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06. Juni 2014

Hero Worship:
Nick Oliveri on Chris Goss

Nick Oliveri lays his career at the feet of an old mentor, the godfather of desert rock

I have mad respect for the influence of Chris Goss. I was just a kid when I met the guy; me and my friends had this band called Katzenjammer when we were really young – I was gone for a while but my first show back with them was on 14 September 1990, by which time we were known as Sons of Kyuss.

We’d been invited to play with Chris’s band Masters of Reality at The Palace in Hollywood on Vine Street. This was also Ginger Baker’s first gig with the Masters and it was a big deal to us which I’ll always remember; we just got up and played our brand of heavy… you know… whatever we were calling it at the time! But the Masters blew me away.

Right away, I found Chris genuine and he’s remained a dear, sincere friend. He really helped Kyuss find its sound; if you listen to Blues for the Red Sun, we were leaning towards a certain vibe and he helped us narrow that down.
He was our Cézanne, like ‘c’mon, I think you guys wanna go this way.’ Besides being our producer, he was the one who gave us a start by bringing labels down to see us play early on, which meant we could play later.  Without Chris, I don’t think Kyuss would have been possible.  I’d have him produce every record if I could.

Much later on, Queens were in the middle of making Songs for the Deaf back in winter 2001 when Goss asked Josh Homme and I to play with Masters of Reality in Europe.
We thought ‘Well, OK, looks like we’re putting this record on the backburner.’ We dropped everything and left the session to go and play that tour.
That’s how much Goss means to me. We had to do it. I wouldn’t be playing right now if it wasn’t for him.

Nick Oliveri plays acoustically at Liverpool East Village Arts Club on 13 Jun, Glasgow Stereo on 17 Jun and Manchester Deaf Institute on 18 Jun. http://twitter.com/NickOliveri