Geoff Tate was asked in a new interview with Anne Erickson of Audio Ink Radio how crucial QUEENSRŸCHE was in pioneering the progressive metal genre. He responded: “Well, I’ll put it this way: there wasn’t a progressive metal genre before us. How about that? [Laughs] Actually, I’m kind of against genres. I’ve never been a fan of genrefication or putting artists’ music into little boxes. It really has only one purpose, and that’s to sell it, you know? The danger of putting a band or an artist in a box like that is that fans get expectations based upon that little box. And oftentimes, if you step outside that box or put your toe outside that box, you get massively criticized, and it’s not accepted, because ‘that’s not progressive metal’ or ‘that’s not metal’ or ‘that’s not hip-hop.’ Everybody puts their limitations on what the art can be, and that’s a dangerous precedent that gets set. It’s a dangerous attitude when you start limiting the thinking, or trying to limit the thinking, of people, and that’s where you get into fascism and, ultimately, monarchies and that kind of thing.”
Asked what his favorite albums with QUEENSRŸCHE were, Tate said: “Well, I’m very proud of all the music that QUEENSRŸCHE made in my time with the band. That’s how we really pushed a lot of boundaries with our music and were very progressive in our presentations. I have very special moments, that I feel are special moments, from my point of view of actually making the records. The ‘Promised Land’ album that we made in ’94 — in ’93; it came out in ’94 — was very special to me, ’cause of the way we did it, living on a remote island and building our own studio. That was an incredible experience, I thought. Working on the ‘Warning’ album in London and living there for a year, making the record and working all the high-end studios in the city and being involved with the music scene at that time was incredibly exciting. And the last album I made with QUEENSRŸCHE, ‘Dedicated To Chaos’, was one of my favorite-sounding records and a record I feel really proud of, ’cause everybody in the band was contributing to that record. It was really a band effort — one of the first band efforts; well, first and only band effort we ever had. So, I felt really great about that, too. But, yeah, there’s high moments, I feel, special moments, I feel, for almost all the records, really. ‘Cause, I think as a writer, as a musician, each record is a success, because you started with nothing and you made something at the end of the day, and that’s a wonderful feeling.”
In April 2014, Tate and QUEENSRŸCHE announced that a settlement had been reached after a nearly two-year legal battle where the singer sued over the rights to the QUEENSRŸCHE name after being fired in 2012. Original QUEENSRŸCHE members Michael Wilton (guitar), Scott Rockenfield (drums) and Eddie Jackson (bass) responded with a countersuit. The settlement included an agreement that Wilton, Rockenfield and Jackson would continue as QUEENSRŸCHE, while Tate would have the sole right to perform the albums “Operation: Mindcrime” and “Operation: Mindcrime II” in their entirety live.
QUEENSRŸCHE has released three albums thus far with Tate‘s replacement, ex-CRIMSON GLORY frontman Todd La Torre — 2013’s “Queensrÿche”, 2015’s “Condition Hüman” and 2019’s “The Verdict”.
