QUEENSRŸCHE Singer's Daughter On Her Father: 'He Likes Order'

While many musicians want little more than the clichéd sex, drugs and rock and roll, QUEENSRŸCHE frontman Geoff Tate is a family man, with five daughters, and is focused on living a life outside the mainstream. "I'm very blessed with my wife," Geoff tells PopMatters in a brand-new interview. "She is a constant cheerleader kind of personality, where I have a tendency toward depression. And she'll logically get me to see that I really don't have anything to be depressed about. She's always saying, 'Just look at your life, look at what we have and what we do and what our life is like, what we're surrounded by. We have five beautiful children, we have a beautiful house in the country, it's very peaceful and quiet and magical, we have fairies living in the woods. Everybody's healthy.' I'm a musician, I travel around the world playing shows for people. People would give their right arm to do that. What have I got to be depressed about, you know? And I think she really helped me see that."

Tate's progressive viewpoints are reflected in his children. Sixteen-year-old daughter Miranda, who had joined the band on tour for 10 days in October, is far from the spoiled brat that many envision when thinking of children of rock stars. She says that with such cool parents, she doesn't have much to rebel against, but that Tate can still be strict at times. "He always encouraged me to speak my mind and stand up for what I believe, so we're like the kids in class when our teachers are talking who say, 'Well actually, that's not what I learned,' " says Miranda. "He's easygoing most of the time, but if stuff gets left on the counter, he can be intense. He likes order."

Tate also has musical tastes that stretch far beyond the hard rock genre. "He listens to classical every morning, every single morning it's on, and if we change the channel, he's like, 'We need to listen to classical,'" says Miranda. "He just goes through the house singing, especially in the mornings, when he makes coffee, always singing, every morning. Just scales, like he's warming up." The 46-year-old Tate is also strict when it comes to the boys his daughters date. "Before we can go on any dates with boys, they have to come to the house and meet him," says Miranda, who acknowledges that it can be rather intimidating for potential boyfriends. "So he grills them like, 'Well, what are your intentions?' He always wants to know, and he has to make sure that they're okay before they go out with us."

Read the entire interview at PopMatters.com.