GEOFF TATE On QUEENSRŸCHE Split: 'I Was Blindsided And I Didn't See It Coming'

Jeb Wright of Classic Rock Revisited recently conducted an interview with QUEENSRŸCHE singer Geoff Tate. A couple of excerpts from the chat follow below.

Classic Rock Revisited: With all the BS going on with your former bandmates, a great middle finger gesture to them would be for you to collaborate with [former QUEENSRŸCHE guitarist] Chris DeGarmo again.

Geoff: Oh, yeah. Chris and I are always talking about doing some stuff together. He doesn't have this life anymore. He changed and he is not interested in going on the road and he is not really interested in making a record. He's come close a couple of times. He calls me up out of the blue and tells me that he has an idea once and a while and I will go over to his house. We've collected a few songs over the years. As time goes by, he is becoming less and less interested in it. I don't blame him. It is the life he has chosen. He switched gears in his head and he has moved on to something else. I can't relate to it at all because I don't think in those terms but I can respect his belief system and his point of view.

Classic Rock Revisited: Looking back over the last year, did the rest of the band do what could be called a corporate takeover?

Geoff: That's exactly what it was. That is why we have the court date next November. It has to be handed in a legal fashion because we are all tied together though the corporation. We have to come to a corporate resolution on how we are going to operate the corporation. We have to decide whether we are going to keep it in operation or dissolve it. There are rules you have to follow if you're going to dissolve it. It is not like just a bunch of guys who play music together and decide to kick somebody out and replace them with somebody else. It is a corporation and there is a whole legal structure that has to be followed.

Classic Rock Revisited: You are a very creative and intelligent man. You have a lot of pride and confidence. Were you really blindsided by this?

Geoff: I was absolutely blindsided. That is what is so humiliating, for me, about it. I was blindsided and I didn't see it coming. It didn't make any sense to me. Think about it: Here is a band that has been successful, not just in America, but worldwide, for thirty years. We have a stellar reputation. I ran a lot of the business in the band and I was the mouthpiece of the band to get the information to the public. It has been my project and my passion to present QUEENSRŸCHE in the most elegant way that I can imagine. For somebody to take this incredibly successful entity and destroy it and shortsightedly slash their throats financially makes no sense. Why would I even think it would be possible? Why would I cancel hundreds of thousands of dollars of shows and not have a backup plan? Why would I fire my entire staff of people and not have anyone in place to take their positions? It makes no sense.

Classic Rock Revisited: Is forgiveness even an option for your former bandmates?

Geoff: I am very open to sitting in a room and actually having a conversation with those guys. I am not saying that anything would be resolved from it, but it would be a really civilized thing to do, to get in a room face to face without lawyers and without other people talking for them. I would like to hear what they actually have to say face to face. They have not done it. They have not talked to me face to face. They have not been man enough to actually stand there and have a conversation with me — none of them. My contempt is complete. How can you respect somebody who doesn't have enough sack to even stand there and have a conversation with you and tell you how they feel?

Read the entire interview from Classic Rock Revisited.

Photo credit: Stephanie Cabral