GEOFF TATE To Perform QUEENSRŸCHE's Entire 'Empire' Album On 30th-Anniversary World Tour Next Year

Former QUEENSRŸCHE frontman Geoff Tate has confirmed that he will celebrate the 30th anniversary of the band's landmark "Empire" album on a special tour next year. Released in 1990, the set included the hit ballad "Silent Lucidity", which reached No. 9 on the Billboard singles chart, helped propel "Empire" to No. 7 on the album chart and earned two Grammy Award nominations.

Speaking to MisplacedStraws.com, Tate said: "I'm planning on touring in 2020 very heavily — sort of doing kind of what I did with the 'Operation: Mindcrime' 30th-year anniversary, going to as many countries as I can and playing the album in its entirety, which I've never done before. So that'll be real fun. In fact, I think there's some songs on that album that I've never, ever played live before, so it'll be a treat — for me, as well, I think, for the audience too… I'm really looking forward to that."

Asked if he is also planning on recording any new music in the near future, Geoff said: "I have a whole bunch of music that's in various states of completion that I'm planning on finishing up and completing over the summer in between festival dates with AVANTASIA, 'cause I'm on the festival dates with them. There's, like, 10 dates across the summer, and they're all based in Europe, so I'm just probably gonna hang out in France for a few months and kind of fly in and out of the dates. My wife and I are talking about renting a house over in eastern France and just kind of commuting to the various festivals. And that way we're close to southern Germany in October, 'cause that's when our big wine festival happens."

Last November, Tate said that QUEENSRŸCHE was working on a 30th-anniversary edition of "Empire", telling Eonmusic: "There's a box set thing coming out for that. I'm kind of in the process of working with them on it right now. I can say from my perspective looking it, it's going to be a phenomenal box set, and I'm really looking forward to it. I'm contributing all kinds of stuff, from interviews to comments to liner notes — yeah, you name it."

When pressed about the musical content, however, the singer remained tight-lipped. "I know exactly what it's going to be, but I can't tell you exactly right now — it's too early," he said.

Tate told Eonmusic that one song from "Empire" that was rarely performed live is "Anybody Listening?" "When QUEENSRŸCHE was together, we never really put that song in our set. We just had a hard time playing it, for some reason; it just never jelled or felt right. And I'd really like to play that song again, and play it right."

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.

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

Geoff recently celebrated the 30th anniversary of "Operation: Mindcrime" on European and U.S. tours.

Tate's post-QUEENSRŸCHE band OPERATION: MINDCRIME released three albums over three years as part of a trilogy: "The Key" (September 2015),"Resurrection" (September 2016) and "The New Reality" (December 2017).