GEOFF TATE Rules Out Return To QUEENSRŸCHE

On April 10, Scott Wark of Canada's The Metal Voice conducted an interview with former QUEENSRŸCHE and current OPERATION: MINDCRIME singer Geoff Tate at The Brass Monkey in Ottawa, Canada. You can now watch the chat below.

Asked if he would consider a return to QUEENSRŸCHE if the opportunity to rejoin the band ever arose, Tate said: "No. You know, there's a spirit of the deal. When you… How do I put it?... When you betray somebody so badly, when you hurt them so badly, it's really hard for the other person to forgive to the extent where, 'Hey, everything is fine. Let's make music.' Making music is very personal. You just don't… you just don't do that with everybody. You can't." Geoff went on to joke that he might be open to reuniting with his former bandmates "if the money was good," before adding: "At this point in my life, it's not worth that enough to go through the toxic vibe."

In April 2014, Tate and QUEENSRŸCHE announced that a settlement had been reached after a nearly two-year legal battle where Tate 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.

In a 2012 interview with "The Classic Metal Show", Tate stated about his former band: "I truly believe that my vision of QUEENSRŸCHE is what has propelled the band for many, many years. When Chris [DeGarmo, guitar] was in the band, we shared a common vision together, and we were a very strong writing team, and a very strong musical team, directing the band and pushing in a certain direction — that kind of thing. Now, when he left, there wasn't anybody but me to do that, and so I've led the band and pushed and pulled and cajoled and bribed and tried to get everyone on the same page for all these years to keep the integrity of the band intact and to keep moving ahead with our vision for what the band was, which was 'no limits.' Let's not put a box around ourselves, let's not give in to some category that somebody assigns us, let's not be who other people think we should be, let's be who we are. And that's the motto I've always followed with the band. And I was instrumental in building this band all these years — this band is mine. I built this thing — all those songs, a majority of them are my thoughts, my ideas, my creativity, my passion. It's me, it's my music, it's my words, it's my dreams, my passions. And especially 'Operation: Mindcrime', that is my baby and my work, and I'm gonna go out and present that the best way that I can."

"The Key", the first album of an ambitious trilogy from OPERATION: MINDCRIME, sold around 2,500 copies in the United States in its first week of release. The CD was made available last September via Frontiers Music Srl.

OPERATION: MINDCRIME's next album, which has already been completed, will arrive in September 2016.