GEOFF TATE Is Still Not Back To 100 Percent After His Open-Heart Surgery

Former QUEENSRŸCHE singer Geoff Tate says that he has still not completely recovered after recently undergoing an unspecified heart procedure.

The 63-year-old musician discussed his health in an interview with Tulsa Music Stream. Asked if he is feeling back to a hundred percent nearly six months after going under the knife, Geoff said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): "Yeah, I think I'm — I don't know if I'd say 'a hundred percent', but I think after the New Year I'll be approaching that number. It was a really difficult few months there. [I'd] never been [seriously] ill in my life — I'd never actually been in a hospital ever — so this was something that was quite a bit different to get used to."

This past August, Tate said that "it took about a month" before he "could make a sound" and eventually regain his singing voice.

"I'd never been in a hospital before in my life, or I'd never had anything wrong with me, and this was the first experience for me," he explained to in Ritchie Birnie. "And I was just amazed at how much it took out of me. I've always been a pretty physical, pretty strong person, but, man, when I came out of the hospital, I was weak. I could barely walk."

On July 3, Tate took to his Facebook page to share a photo of him with Dr. Sami Kueri from the department of cardiovascular surgery at the Universitäts-Herzzentrum Freiburg-Bad Krozingen (University Heart Center Freiburg) in Bad Krozingen, Germany, and he included the following message: "All my gratitude to the talented Dr. Sami Kueri for giving me a healthy heart!! Feeling so much better each day!"

In June, Tate said that he would take a few months off the road as he recovered from a medical procedure.

On June 13, Geoff, who fronted QUEENSRŸCHE for 30 years — from the band's inception through 2012 — took to his social media to write: "I am having a medical procedure and my health professionals want me to recover over the Summer. I will be back and rocking South America in January. Looking forward to seeing everyone on the road."

Tate's recent tour celebrated the 30th anniversary of QUEENSRŸCHE's "Empire" and "Rage For Order" albums.

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. Fellow 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.

Tate was replaced in QUEENSRŸCHE by former CRIMSON GLORY singer Todd La Torre.

Geoff will embark on a tour in 2023 to celebrate the 35th anniversary of "Operation: Mindcrime".

Photo courtesy of Geoff Tate's Facebook page