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All images courtesy of Nick Oliveri/Heavy Psych Sounds Records

Legendary desert rocker, Nick Oliveri, is with us today. Nick Oliveri is one of the most hard-rocking artists out there today. As a bass player, he has been a part of legendary bands Kyuss, Queens of the Stone Age, and Mondo Generator. The Desert Rock, Stoner Rock, and Metal scenes have been heavily shaped by his work with these seminal bands.

These days, Nick is working on his solo material, which you can find via the fantastic Heavy Psych Sounds label here. Nick is also a member of Bloodclot, which features the likes of John Joseph McGowen (Cro-Mags), Joey Castillo (Queens of the Stone Age), and Todd Youth (Danzig). You can learn more about them here.

So, let’s dig into this interview with the one and only Nick Oliveri. I hope you dig it. I know I did. Cheers.

Andrew:
Nick, thank you for taking the time to speak with us. This last year has been rough, right? How are you holding up during this seemingly ever-raging dumpster fire?

Nick:
Yeah. Last year’s been terrible. It was a nightmare, so to speak. I know it was for everybody I know. I’m just holding up, just like everybody else, and I’m just getting by and waiting for this thing to pass, just like everybody else. Let’s just hope the government’s open things up again soon. I mean…enough is enough.

Andrew:
Tell us about your backstory. What was your musical gateway so to speak?

Nick:
Well, my musical gateway was a little acoustic guitar from Mexico I had as a kid. It had nylon strings. I didn’t know how to play it, it was out of tune, it had high action, and it left blisters on my thumb. No idea what I was doing. I had an uncle who said, “You’re gonna play music one day,” and he gave me a Black Sabbath record.

My real musical gateway was when I was really young and listening to the radio and shit; that’s when I got into Rock ‘N’ Roll. I got a KISS record. I didn’t start out with Rock. I think I bought a Village People record. I was pretty young, maybe 4 or 5, and I didn’t know any better. I don’t not like it…I’m just saying…I was a kid. My musical tastes changed, and thank God I got into Rock ‘N’ Roll, and here I am. [Laughs].

Andrew:
As a musician and bassist, who are some of your earliest and most important influences?

Nick:
My most important influences are Geezer Butler from Black Sabbath; of course, you can kind of hear that sometimes. I like Chuck Dukowski from Black Flag and Mike Watt. Band-wise, I like a lot of early Rock, like 70s Rock, 80s Rock, especially 80s Punk Rock, and 80s crossover Thrash Metal and old Punk stuff. I like Cro-Mags and stuff like that. Harley Flanagan on bass is pretty rad. I really enjoy listening to Darryl Jenifer from Bad Brains; he’s really great. There are a lot of players I really enjoy…the list could go on for hours and hours. I really am a music fan on all levels. I like all different styles of music, but mainly what I listened to as a kid was just Punk Rock, 80s crossover, and Black Sabbath. I love Black Sabbath a lot, mainly the first six records. Technical Ecstasy isn’t so bad, but it wasn’t great as a whole for me. Same with Never Say Die; there were some great numbers on there like, “Johnny Blade,” but the record as a whole isn’t my favorite. I like shit that’s dangerous and heavy, you know?

Andrew:
You were a member of the highly-influential Desert Rock band, Kyuss. Tell us how you ended up with the band.

Nick:
We started out in 1987. I moved to the Palm Desert when I was 11 years old. My mother had gotten a job advancement in a supermarket to be a deli manager, in this new up-and-coming metropolis of a city in the middle of the desert. Haha. So, we came out here, and I was mad at first, but now I’m happy about it. I gotta say; it’s been great. I never would have played music on the level that I have because I never would have met the guys I ended up being in Kyuss with. I mean, that was my first band. Originally, in 1987, we were called Katzenjammer, and Brant Bjork had us over for a practice. It was a good practice; we rocked ’em out and I still can remember those original songs the guys brought in. I was a bit older than them, and maybe a little bit of a late bloomer as a songwriter compared to them. I came in with stuff like The Damned New Rose, The Ramones “Blitzkrieg Bop,” “I Don’t Care,” and stuff like Misfits. We rocked ’em out and it was fun. And then Brant was like, “Hey, I got this song ‘Communion Youth,’” and I can still remember it to this day. It’s funny that I can’t always remember stuff I wrote last month, but I can remember that song. It was the first time I had a musical conversation with someone in the same room, you know? It was actually someone else playing instruments with me…it was usually just me in my bedroom playing guitar before that. And so, that’s how I came to be in Kyuss.

When we were Katzenjammer, we played a party at a guy named Chris Baker’s house, on Halloween of 1987. We were just kids. We played one more party somewhere else, and then I left the band. At the time, I was playing second guitar/rhythm guitar and Chris Cockrell was playing bass, and then they became Sons of Kyuss. They never wanted to get rid of Chris, and I had been playing in some bands up in LA, just messing around when they asked me to come try out again. I said, “I got a guitar,” and they told me they had a bass I could use, which is why I played with a pick…I just showed up with a pick. I didn’t have any other gear and I just showed up with a pick and I was like, “Alright, I’ll play.” Haha! Anyway, I got the gig…again…and I became the bass player. Soon after that, we dropped the name “Sons of.” We did one show as Sons of Kyuss at the Palace in Hollywood and we opened, but we became just Kyuss after that. We did a bunch of shows around LA, got lucky, and got signed; the rest is history.

Andrew:
The Palm Desert Rock scene was pretty incredible, right? Looking back, what do you remember about the early days of that scene? What are the scene and those bands’ enduring legacy?

Nick:
Yeah, it was incredible here in the desert. I think the rest of the world is just kinda grasping onto it now. Back then, the Sub Pop thing was blowing up, but it was tough to try and compete with that, and we did try to. We wanted to be a part of it because we listened to all those bands at the time from 1989-1991 or so. But, we were just doing our own desert Sludge thing and we didn’t even have a name for it musically. Now they call it, “Stoner Rock,” but back then, we didn’t have a name for it; we were just playing some heavy rock, you know? It wasn’t Metal, but there’s some tinges of it in there, and there’s a Punk attitude in the early stuff. We were just going for it…being kids, being creative, and having an outlet.

In the early days, there wasn’t a scene so much in the Palm Desert. We played parties, so there was a scene amongst friends. It was pretty awesome just playing out in the middle of nowhere. There weren’t venues that existed in this kinda old people resort area that we lived in. So, we would make parties out in the desert with generators. All these awesome bands would throw these parties and Kyuss would play them, when we weren’t playing house parties. If we weren’t playing the shows, then we would still go and check ’em out because it was a great time. It was a great time to be a kid…not like now, I guess, but hey, maybe things will change…I hope.

As far as a “legacy,” that happened way later in the game, because when I played in Kyuss, I can tell you how many people were at the shows…there weren’t very many people there! Haha! We weren’t very liked at the beginning, only amongst our friends here is the des. So, I’m always questioning somebody who’s like, “I saw Kyuss in 1990,” and I’m like, “No you didn’t. I literally would have known you.” I met everyone at the show; they were our friends and a couple of new people would show up each time. I think in places like “Kyuss World,” just trading CDs and MP3s online has made Kyuss bigger than it’s ever been. We didn’t have a record label at the time pushing the band and the records, but now with record stores still existing and having the record in the stores, we’re bigger now than we ever were without any of that shit. So, it’s kind of like the fan’s band now as far as I’m concerned. They should own the name, they should own the band and they should tell us when we gotta play. Haha. I know that’s a bit extreme, but I do think that it’s the fan’s band and they took it further than we ever did just by word of mouth, and just by caring about it. I appreciate all of it. We have the best fans in the world!

Andrew:
More on Kyuss. Wretch and Blues for the Red Sun were such special albums. What do you remember about recording them? Do you have regrets thinking about what may have been had the band stayed together?

Nick:
Well, the thing about Kyuss is that we had never been in a big studio before. With Blues for the Red Sun, we went into Sound City, and wow…what an experience! Real recording. Real 2-inch tape. A real producer. It was just great. I can’t remember everything about it, but I remember having a lot of fun and experimenting with sounds and tones and stuff and having the time to actually do that; that was incredible to me. To this day, when I do a Mondo Generator record, I get in and I get out quick. What’s affordable? What can we do, you know? Haha. Finish it at home, at home studios and shit…do the bass and drums…as much as we can before we run out of time there, and then finish it at home. Haha. So, having the time to go into the studio, having a budget, a record label, and all that junk…it was an incredible time! I think we were sort of on the last wave of those bands that was able to experience that.

I think if the band would’ve stayed together, we wouldn’t be able to enjoy bands like Queens of the Stone Age, Unida, Hermano, or Mondo Generator…you name it, there’s a lot of bands that have come from Brant Bjork’s bands. He played in Fu Manchu as well. Me and Brant have a new band together now called Stoner. So, none of this would be existing right now had Kyuss stayed together. So, that’s the good that came from disbanding, that there’s a shit ton of good music out there that you can enjoy…if you’re into it.

Andrew:
After Kyuss broke up, you were then a member (along with other Kyuss bandmates) of Queens of the Stone Age from 1997-2004. How did Queens start?

Nick:
I was in Austin, Texas, and when Josh came through and did a show at South by Southwest, I came by and saw it. Then, he came by and saw my band play at a little bar down the street, because we weren’t able to get on stage at the festival. It was supposed to be for local bands; we put in an application, but they didn’t accept us for some reason (probably because we didn’t have a record label). So, it’s not what it’s supposed to be; wasn’t back then either. Anyway, Josh came by and he liked what I was doing, and asked me to play in his band. I saw him play earlier, and he was kind of unsure about himself at the time; I could tell he wasn’t really vibing on it. He wasn’t doing real good with it like he was worried about it. So, he asked me and I was like, “Send me a cassette, dude. I haven’t really listened to it and I couldn’t really hear what you guys were doing up there,” and he was like “OK cool.” So, he sent me a cassette, which had songs like “Mexicola,” and I was like, “Wow- cool. I want in on this.” The rest is history.

I took my ’66 Barracuda, and I drove from Austin, Texas back to the des to Josh’s place; he gave me the address over the phone, and I just showed up. We started doing some Queens stuff. We started playing, did our first show two months after that at a café in Palm Desert, and the next show was literally in Belgium, at the Pukkelpop Festival, at the end of 1997 or the start of 1998. We practiced our asses off, got it together, and basically just started and it never stopped, you know? The whole time I was in the band, we just stayed out playing shows, recording on repeat, non-stop for a good five years. It was great. But that’s how we started; Josh started it, and that was it. We took it to another level. We all gambled on something we believed in, and it was cool. We had songs to back up what we were trying to do.

Andrew:
You were a part of some pretty special albums with Queens too, right? Rated R and Songs for the Deaf may well still be the band’s best records. What do you remember about the recording of those albums?

Nick:
Well, the thing about Rated R was it was a gas. It was great fun because we were at Sound City and just partying and listening to music. We would go home from the studio and end up getting hotels down the block from the studio, and just party in the room, listening to what we had done that day. Haha. It was all recorded on CDs. I still have all these CDs, with different tracks, vocals, and parts that didn’t make it to the record. We would go listen and make notes of what we needed to do. We were super excited, partying, listening and it was just crazy. We were supposed to be in the studio at noon, but we were probably just falling asleep at noon. We would roll in at five in the evening. Haha. We would work until 7 am and go back to the hotel and party, listen to it, and drink some more beers. It was a lot of fun.

Songs for the Deaf was a bit different. We recorded that in like four or five different studios. We started out a Bare Foot, then went to Conway Studios, then went to The Site, and there may be some other that I can’t remember, but it was great fun all the same. Dave Grohl being there was amazing. He was like, “I wanna join your band,” and we were like, “What? Shit, this is great. This doesn’t suck. This is an amazing thing.” So, that in and of itself was great. What a champion he’s been for us over the years! We were a band’s band, touring around, and he liked us. Dave Grohl’s liked us since Kyuss. I remember him being at a show we played in 1991 at the Off Ramp in Seattle, and Dave and Krist Novoselic came down and we were like, “Wow, dude…cool. He does like our band.” He was one of the few people I remember that really liked Kyuss from the very beginning; he was always a Kyuss fan, and he championed us. Dave took us out on tour with the Foo Fighters and we were starting to sell records rather than just giving them to our bros and the bands we played with. We started selling records to like 16-year-old kids; I guess we won a couple of ’em over!

Andrew:
Ultimately, you ended up leaving Queens of the Stone Age. Can you tell us a bit about what led to that decision? In my opinion, the band was never the same without you. Is there any chance of you rejoining Queens in the future?

Nick:
On February 14th, 2004, I read online that I was out of the band and I was like, “Wow…bummer.” It was crushing, but I did leave. It was just the 17th anniversary on the 14th of February of me being out of the band. It’s been a long time. I’ve done a lot since, but I left the band because I think we just did too much, with no breaks from each other. It was literally five years solid. If we did a side project, we did it together. If we did Desert Sessions or Mondo, we would be in each other’s studio playing on that stuff, and then going right back out on tour. We just were doing a lot of stuff, and just did not stop; we just needed a break, you know? It is what it is; things happen.

I think as far as getting back together, that I’d play with Josh. I’d love to play with Josh. I think we have great chemistry. I don’t know if Queens of the Stone Age would ever have me back, or if I even wanna go back…I don’t really miss it anymore, but I can’t say I wouldn’t play with Josh if he asked me to. I really enjoyed playing music with him; I have since I was a kid, so that’s a no-brainer. I don’t know about joining, or getting back together…that’s up to him. It’s his band now.

Andrew:
Let’s talk about your own solo work. Since 2004, you’ve released some awesome solo records and you’ve been with Heavy Psych Sounds since 2017, right? Tell us what the journey as a solo artist has been like.

Nick:
Well, I’ve played on about 60+ releases and have most of those in my photos on Reverb Nation here. I have most of my records in the photos there; each release, when they came out, and what I’ve been doing all these years. There is a lot of stuff I’ve played on, and that I’ve been a part of. I never played on anything I don’t like. A lot of the stuff I haven’t posted. actually, because I kind of got off social media for a bit, and I’m trying to stay away from it.

The solo thing began when I was in Queens. I wanted to do some acoustic shows on our days off. Josh wanted to start taking more days off, and I wanted to keep playing and stay busy, because I don’t like to go out on tour to sit in a hotel room and stare at the walls, so I like to get out and go play a show instead. So, that’s what I did; me and Mark Lanegan would go and play shows. We’d go to record stores and say, “Hey…can we play here for free? Maybe bring some people down?” And most would be like, “Yeah, you guys can play here.” So, we started doing the solo thing, just playing acoustic, and he dug it, and I dug it, too. Mark was already doing solo stuff, so it wasn’t something he really needed to get into, but I liked doing it myself. It kept me busy and kept me from getting into trouble, and kept my nose clean haha. I like staying busy as hell, so I’d go on tour and I’d play 40 gigs in a row; I don’t take days off. My day off would be a 12-hour drive, with a 4-hour ferry ride in-between…that’s my break. I’ve done solo tours where I drive myself. I told myself I’d just go it alone, and I just did it. Haha. It’s challenging, but it’s my job, or it was, until the pandemic. I play with my band for fun…I gotta pay my guys though because they’re good guys and have kids. They’re the Mondo guys, and they’re great guys.

So, now I’m playing drums in a new band called DM3, and it’s pretty rad. We just did a recording at Brant Bjork’s studio, which was pretty cool. As you can see, I do lots of stuff and there’s lots in the works, too. It’s been a good time playing solo and playing with all these different bands like the Dwarves on and off. It’s been good to me. How do I juggle all the bands? Well they have kids, and I don’t, so basically it works somehow. I’ll tell them when I can get on a tour and they make their tour happen then, because I can stay out on tour for 10 months out of the year and be OK with it, and I do just that. Heavy Psych Sounds are putting out my records and keeping me on tour, booking my shows in Europe and it’s been a good time. They’re good people, and we work well together. They’ve been keeping me busy and we were making a couple of bucks together, which was cool, and then the pandemic hit – BAM – and here we are, 10 or 11 months later, still sitting here…but life is hard. What are you gonna do?

Andrew:
With all this downtime due to COVID-19, can we hope for any new music from you soon?

Nick:
Oh yeah. I got couple of new records that are gonna be coming out. That band I mentioned earlier called Stoner with Brant Bjork is awesome; the name says it all. We both sing, and I play bass. I got DM2 and DM3. I’m working on new Mondo Generator stuff always, and I’ve been putting out new compilations through Heavy Psych Sounds. We’re up to Volume 7, which is basically comps of all these different bands I’ve been working with, where I sing lead vocals. I don’t always play bass on all of it, but I sing on all of it. As far as the comps, they’re a cool collectible thing, and they’re rad. People like ’em, and collect ’em, and I’m one of ’em! I have all of ’em! COVID-19 has given me downtime for sure. I am starting to play with other people. It’s opened doors to jamming. Stoner never would have come about if not for COVID-19 hitting, so I guess it hasn’t been all negative.

Andrew:
Let’s talk about the state of the music industry a bit. What are a few things you would like to see change for the betterment of both the fans and artists alike?

Nick:
I think people are really hung up on what other people are saying or singing about, and they have some comments about it. Music is an outlet. Music is freedom of speech, man. It’s a great thing. I don’t know that it should be censored. I mean, if you wanna be a complete jackass, you can say something totally out of line, but what’s “out of line” anyway? I mean…what really is “out of line?” Either you like a band, or you don’t like a band and what they’re singing about. Who gives a shit what they say if you’re not even listening to them? People spent too much time on what everyone else is doing or saying and try to change it, and if they don’t like it, then you shouldn’t either, ’cause it, “Ain’t right what they’re singing about.” I started playing music to offend people. Haha. It’s why I did this, originally.

I started playing music ’cause I want people to get bummed out sometimes. I don’t want the “adults” to be happy about it; I want the kids to be stoked…that’s what I’m trying to do. I’m trying to get with the folks who are trying to be old before their time, and who don’t start trying to get all weird about what’s being said. I mean…come on…it’s a Rock band…it’s a rock song. It’s supposed to be dangerous and unlimited to all levels of uncensored freedom of speech, you know? Why are we trying to take that freedom and liberty away from someone’s music? It’s really lame. And in America, it’s just really lame right now. That’s why I like playing in Europe…people get weird there too, but it seems like there’s a bit less of, “What did you say that for?” I don’t know…maybe it’s a language barrier, but I think it’s kind of cool that you can do more over there than here in America. It seems they like Rock more there, too. We don’t really “Rock” here in America as much anymore; it’s more Hip-Hop, but it is what it is.

Andrew:
In a world dominated by capitalism and social media, can indie artists really, truly get ahead? How do we keep the playing field level so that everyone has a chance to succeed?

Nick:
I don’t know if we can get ahead anymore. I mean, there was a time when you could; there were more record stores and sales, but now you have to sell your stuff online, and how do people even know to go to your site unless you post about it every second of the day? I don’t know who has time to do that! It’s a weird thing; without major labels signing bands like they used to, you just have the Internet which sort of just gives everyone a “fair” start. It’s sort of this weird, almost communist situation, where each band is the same, and it becomes hard to tell them apart. It just seems very weird to me. The world’s changed on that level, and the arts aren’t always recognized as things that are important. So, that’s kind of a drag to me. So, I just keep playing and keep busy, and I don’t really care about much else.

Andrew:
Are you into records? Tapes? CDs? Digital? Where do you like to shop for music?

Nick:
I like LPs the best. I don’t really have cassettes. I do have the Bad Brains cassette because it’s an original and I like to collect things. I have some CDs. I have iTunes, but I upload my own stuff into it. I don’t really buy stuff off iTunes too much. I like to shop for music at any store, but I go to Discogs, which is cool. I’ll go to different bands’ sites and get their records. I’ll go to shows and I’ll buy the record if I like a band. I think it’s important to support bands and go out and see them live. When this whole thing lifts and everybody can go out and see shows again, I’d appreciate seeing everybody out there, getting crazy, sweating, and bleeding together…let’s do this together again! Haha. Let’s put on our big boy pants and rock out. You know what I’m saying?! [Laughs]. I wanna rock!

Andrew:
What are a few albums that mean the most to you and why?

Nick:
I really, really enjoy Black Sabbath. Master of Reality is a great record, but I think my favorite is probably Vol. 4. I could probably do without “Changes” for some reason. I don’t know why, but that song kind of puts a damper on the whole record. The whole record is perfect except for that song. I don’t think it should be in there, but that’s just me. I skip over it. I very rarely skip over a Sabbath song, but that’s one I don’t like. It doesn’t make me feel right, or good. I don’t wanna feel unhappy and it makes me feel so sad.

Black Flag — Damaged.

The Cro-Mags — Age of Quarrel…fuuuuck.

Bad Brains — Rock For Light.

Poison Idea — Feel the Darkness…just amazing.

I’d like to give a shoutout to Stephen Hanford who passed away last year in May, and Simon Stokes who passed away in December at 83 years old. Simon Stokes…The Incredible Simon Stokes & The Black Whip Thrill Band…now there’s a good record, too. It’s insane. Simon Stokes was a great songwriter and a great guy. Shout out to both of those dudes. RIP.

Andrew:
Touring is a huge part of a working musician’s proverbial machine, but COVID-19 has disallowed it mostly. What do you miss most about live music? Do you think the industry will recover?

Nick:
We played a party on the 14th in the desert, and so we’ve been doing that again. Just kinda going underground with gigs. If they’re not gonna let us play in a venue, then we have to make it happen illegally. Hahaha. ‘Cause, we have to keep playing. So, we’re doing it. We’re not stopping. Can’t stop us. We’re gonna continue to play. I know they wanna kill music and they wanna kill entertainment; they see these things as threats. I don’t, but that’s just me. I’m ready to go play. I’m not afraid of it. Never have been. Never gonna be.

As far as the industry recovering, I don’t think it will. I mean, a lot of venues are closed and will never open again. I think to a certain degree, they got scammed. These great venues have amazing land and locations; someone will get that real estate. In America, the pandemic seems to be stretching on and on and on. The media keeps feeding people bullshit. I don’t know about other places. In a way, I wish we could somehow just get out and do our thing and somehow stop caring about it, but that only goes for those of us that are strong-bodied and don’t have health issues. I don’t know. What are you gonna do?

It feels like in the end, all the big guns will take all that real estate, snatch it up and turn it into a beachfront property or main drag storefronts. So, there are a lot of different variables to how they’re advancing on this whole thing. I think that at the end of the day, music and entertainment is at the bottom of the list…the last thing on the list to be brought out and released even with a mask (which they’re making millions on, by the way). Maybe they don’t want us in groups anymore after this. Maybe they don’t want us to talk to each other anymore. I don’t know about the rest of the world, but here in America, it feels like our livelihood has been permanently taken away from us. I don’t know if we can even stand for this country anymore. I don’t. I’m over it. I stand for myself. I just wanna be by myself and with my friends. Away from the government. I don’t know if I am right or wrong. It’s just my opinion. Anyways, that’s how I feel. The planet has been destroyed by this shit. COVID-19 is deadly alright…in more ways than one.

Andrew:
What other passions do you have? How do those passions inform your music, if at all?

Nick:
Well, my passion is living free. Seeing people. Doing my thing. Playing music wherever I wanna play it, wherever people will have me, and wherever they want to come to see me play. I’ll stop and talk to everyone at my show. I’ll do an acoustic show and talk to everybody at the end of the show. If I haven’t met ’em during the show, I’ll have ’em come up on stage before or after the show. So…that’s what a passion is all about. Traveling and touring kind of links in with the music. Everything I do kind of links in with the music. So, I don’t really do much else, but I’m a lover, not a fighter, and I love music, man! Haha.

Andrew:
Last question. You’ve maintained a strong DIY approach throughout your career, which is awesome. That said, what advice would you have for young artists just starting out? How do bands stay afloat in a world that seems to be so abhorrent to creatives?

Nick:
Well, I don’t know how a band stays afloat in this world right now. I think you just need to be creative and not think about the money aspect of it at first, until you’ve established yourself to make money and make someone else money, like an agent or a record label, to the point that they will put their name on the line to work with you. You need to not worry about money. You shouldn’t worry about money anyway; you’re always gonna have to pay your dues. I play shows for free and I play ’em for a lot of money sometimes, so I do what I can do to keep playing somehow. You’re gonna have to do the same. If you’re starting out, you need to just play, and you need to do it because you have a passion to play music, and because you feel it in your blood and your soul, and you have to let it out. It isn’t about money when you’re starting out, ever. It shouldn’t be about money, but you know when you want to do it as a living, there has to be some money aspect to it; that’s the business end to it.

Remember, there’s always a business end to music- always. If you don’t do the business side of it, you ain’t got nothing, you know? Also, you need to do the friend and fan side of it, and be friendly and cool, because there’s no reason to be a dick. You wanna meet people who like your music; you wanna meet people anyway. There’s no reason to be an asshole to anybody. You should be nice to people, and then only be a dick if need be, which is not a bad way to be in general. It’s not a good way to be starting out, to go around and be a dick to people. That’s just unnecessary.

I would say just keep playing, guys and girls. Just rock it! Don’t even trip. Just tough it out, no matter what happens. If you wanna play music, you gotta go through a lot of different obstacles and ups and downs…mostly downs. You gotta be a tough mother fucker. That’s a fact. So keep fighting, and keep playing. Keep up the fight. Keep up the Rock, and keep Rock ‘N’ Roll alive. Cheers, y’all.

Interested in diving deeper into the work of Nick Oliveri? Check out the link below:

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