GEOFF TATE Wants Nothing To Do With His Former Bandmates Ever Again

Jay Nanda of Examiner.com recently conducted an interview with QUEENSRŸCHE vocalist Geoff Tate. A couple of excerpts from the chat follow below.

Examiner.com: You played a solo gig here on May 31 at the Empire Theater. That was just four days after the Rocklahoma gig noted for when you told the crowd that they sucked, which proved to be your final gig with the QUEENSRŸCHE that we knew. Six months later, how do you look back on everything that transpired?

Geoff: Everything that transpired?

Examiner.com: Yeah, between then and now.

Geoff: Well, honestly, I prefer not to think about it. [laughs] You know, it's too bad that it all ended up the way it did. It's really too bad that the other guys were unable to sit in a room and actually have a civil conversation, and come up with some conclusions on how we could either continue on or break this whole thing apart in an elegant way. I regret that that couldn't happen, and I regret that we couldn't have ended on a more elegant note, I suppose I should say, rather than the way it did.

Examiner.com: I was just about to ask if you had any regrets over your role in it.

Geoff: In my reaction to their firing me and my family and our whole organization?

Examiner.com: Just anything that transpired that we may not know about.

Geoff: No, I don't have any regrets. I handled myself in the way that I always handle myself. They chose to go a different route and go about it in a real ugly way. I don't have any regrets. I can definitely sleep at night.

Examiner.com: Have you listened to Todd La Torre singing your material? Do you view him as a replacement or as an impostor singing your songs? A lot of people out there, they take both sides, but a lot — myself included — are kind of flabbergasted and can't imagine anybody else trying to sing your songs.

Geoff: [laughs] Ah, no I haven't heard him sing. I don't really know anything about him. Honestly, I look at the whole situation — their situation — as kind of insignificant to me. I have my own life and my own scene that I'm completely engulfed in. I really don't pay attention to what they're doing or how they're doing it or what they think or what they say.

Examiner.com: After all is said and done, do you foresee a reunion with your ex-bandmates?

Geoff: Oh, I hope not! I feel completely free now. I'd never want to go backwards. QUEENSRŸCHE had a glorious legacy, in my opinion. We had a very respectful name. We had a body of work that was very well-respected and very diverse and unique all over the world. We had a stellar reputation. Those three guys, they took that reputation, and they tore it apart and rubbed it in the dirt. That's how much they cared about it. And if they care so little about it, they're not the kind of people I want to associate with. Ever. Again. Honestly, I feel complete freedom being away from them, and they can live their small, little lives and do what they're going to do, and that's great. Happy for 'em. But I won't have anything else to do with them.

Read the entire interview at Examiner.com.