Ex-QOTSA Bassist Nick Oliveri Somehow Avoids Jail After SWAT Stand-Off

Sometimes Kyuss Lives! member and former Queens of the Stone Age bassist, Nick Oliveri, has managed to wrangle a fairly good plea bargain from the hearing over his 2011 incident involving his girlfriend, a faux-hostage situation and a SWAT team.

In July of that year Oliver, who Josh Homme revealed he had sacked from Queens of the Stone Age after confronting the bassist after hearing reports he had been engaged in domestic violence, had been involved in a tense, five-hour stand-off with police officers at his Hollywood apartment after they were called out by his girlfriend alleging that he had hit her repetedly and was preventing her from leaving his house.

Once the dust had settled, Oliveri was arrested and hit with six felony charges after police found a fully loaded shotgun in his home, as well seizing cocaine and methamphetamines. As well as being charged for multiple counts of possession of a controlled substance and a misdemeanour count of resisting, obstructing or delaying a police offer.

In March this year, the bassist pleaded not guilty to all charges but was looking down the barrel of a 15-year jail sentence if convicted.

Today however, TMZ reports that Oliveri has brokered a deal with prosecutors to avoid his potential 15 year sentencing, his lawyer, Freddy Sayegh saying that his client “agreed to plead to one count of possession of cocaine” in order to obtain the “dismissal of the remaining six felony counts.”

The deal allows the former QOTSA member to serve 3 years of felony probation, 52 weeks of anger management and 200 hours of community service. It’s a miracle he managed to dodge a jail term considering his crimes.

A judge signed off the plea bargain yesterday, adding that if Oliveri stayed clean during his probation term, he’d expunge the entire case from Oliveri’s record. To say he dodged a bullet is an understatement.

Oliveri was orginally sacked from Queens of the Stone Age in 2004, after frontman Josh Homme confronted the bassist after hearing about reports he had been engaging in domestic violence.

The SWAT arrest and subsequent legal trials also forced his fellow bandmates in Kyuss Lives! to resort to ‘Plan B’,replacing him temporarily with Scott Reeder, one of the earliest Kyuss members.

“The essence of what Kyuss became was born with Nick on bass,” said Kyuss drummer Brant Bjork when hearing of Nick Oliveri’s arrest.

“But Nick has a lifestyle that can be very interesting at best – and when Nick is unable to fulfil an obligation, we have an amazing Plan B.”

Oliveri is currently on tour with his own group, Mondo Generator.