Ex-QUEENSRŸCHE Singer GEOFF TATE: 'It's Taken All Of My Focus To Reinvent Myself'

Anthony Morgan of Metal Forces recently conducted an interview with former QUEENSRŸCHE and current OPERATION: MINDCRIME vocalist Geoff Tate. A couple of excerpts from the chat follow below.

On the story of "Resurrection", the second in a concept trilogy of OPERATION: MINDCRIME albums:

Geoff: "At the end of the first album ['The Key'], the main character called H has been — we think, at that time — been killed. His murderers leave him buried in a box in the middle of the desert, and the beginning of the second album, 'Resurrection', starts with him not being dead. He is regaining his consciousness, and starts breaking out of the box and digging his way out, and beginning the task of putting his life back together after being horribly betrayed and abused.

"Really, the second record is about the main character H gaining his strength back and his sense of purpose, and formulating a plan as to how he can recover the missing code from the people that took it. He never actually loses the key; he has it at all times, but just can't use it until he gets the sequential code back again. In the overall story arc, the second album is really him coming back to life basically; him getting his life back together, and figuring out how he can get all of his life's work back together again and continue on with his plan."

On vocalists Blaze Bayley (ex-IRON MAIDEN) and Tim "Ripper" Owens (ex-JUDAS PRIEST) guesting on the track "Taking On The World":

Geoff: "I never thought of them at all when I wrote the song. That wasn't in my mind at all. I didn't think of adding them to the song until the song was written. I was listening back to the song and the story arc and where it was, and then I thought 'Oh.' Blaze was in town, and I started talking to him about the project that I was doing. The idea just hit me, like 'Hey… Why don't you sing on this record?' We've known each other for quite a while, and it was fun.

"So, that just kind of started it. That's kind of the way my life is. Things come about, and I find myself in a situation, and just kind of go with it. It's called improvisation. You see that there's a situation involved that you could involve yourself in or somebody else and it feels right, so you go with it. It was great; it was a wonderful recording experience. We had a great time doing it."

On writing an autobiography:

Geoff: "I've thought about it. I just haven't had the time. To do something like that requires a real focus, and obviously my focus has been on writing music and touring really over the last few years. Picking up after the split with QUEENSRŸCHE has really been kind of a transition in my life. It's taken all of my focus to reinvent myself, to a certain extent."

Read the entire interview at www.metalforcesmagazine.com.