“We had so much fun recording Rated R and Songs for the Deaf. We’d do mushrooms, and the next day, we’d be drinking. We’d be being creative, wild and crazy – that led to some great moments”: Nick Oliveri on Queens of the Stone Age's “definitive” era

Nick Oliveri playing bass onstage with Josh Homme.

At 52, with a heavy bass slung over his shoulder, a half-burned cigarette dangling from his lips, and a maniacal grin accented by a raggedy goatee, Nick Oliveri is a throwback to a bygone era. He’s never been afraid to speak his mind, but he’s earned that through years of throat-stomping music.

Despite his explosive reputation, Oliveri speaks with a weary tone, and one can’t help but get the idea that he’s seen too much. “Unfortunately,” he says of the members of the halcyon Palm Desert rock scene, “we all got old. But we’re still playing; we’re still at it.”