And Why Did Kyuss Break Up, Mr. Homme?
With former Kyuss guitarist Joshua Homme about to join the
traveling Lollapalooza '96 circus as hired rhythm guitarist for the Screaming
Trees (and with a debut single from his new project, Gamma Ray, due shortly
from Frank Kozik's ultra-hip Man's Ruin label) it seemed a good time to grill
Homme as to why, exactly, Kyuss had to throw in the towel, when to our ears,
they were gearing up to become the new Metallica. "There are so many little
things," Homme told us. "It ends up boiling down to this: I'd been in that band
since I was 14 years old; that was only thing I knew how to do. So I just had
to quit. We're friends enough that we were able to put it away...I'd rather
have Kyuss be something where people say, 'That was the coolest shit ever.'
It's
a really good track record--we made four records. Nothing too out of control
[happened] as far as having to deal with BS. I didn't want to have to kick the
dead horse. I like the Jane's Addiction theory of music: 'See ya!'"