MICHAEL WILTON Explains Why It's 'Hard' For QUEENSRŸCHE To Find Time To Work On New Studio Album

In a new interview with Robert Cavuoto of Myglobalmind, QUEENSRŸCHE guitarist Michael Wilton spoke about a possible follow-up to the band's 2022 album "Digital Noise Alliance". He said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): " Yeah, we have submitted a bunch of demos to each other, and we're working on that. We hope to get Zeuss [Chris Harris], the producer, to do this one. But, basically, we're in a situation of touring now post-pandemic, where the bands have to tour a lot. And we do a lot of fly dates as well. So it's hard to pick a certain amount of time to get another album done. But we are gonna do another one. And hopefully we can get it started or recorded in 2025."

Wilton also talked about the 1997 departure of original QUEENSRŸCHE guitarist Chris DeGarmo. Asked if it was a "big blow" to the band when Chris left QUEENSRŸCHE to embark on his new career as a pilot, Michael said: "Yeah, I think we had reached a certain peak at that point. And he was looking for a change of pace. I mean, you could see in the last album he wrote — he was talking about flying a lot. So he literally started going to school for flying, and to this day that's what he's doing. But, yeah, I think we needed some time to just kind of refresh and see if we could go on without him. But anyway, we gave it our best shot, and it took a while. And now you've got all these different versions of the band throughout our career. But Chris and I were great writing partners. We just kind of knew what each other was thinking when we would write double solos or write parts for songs and just bounce ideas off each other. So, those were great times. But, yeah, it just kind of burned itself out. But we're doing great right now. We're having a great time and still playing the old stuff but playing the new stuff as well."

QUEENSRŸCHE performed the band's 1983 EP and 1984's "The Warning" album in their entirety as part of "The Origins Tour".

"Digital Noise Alliance" came out in October 2022 via Century Media. The record was once again helmed by Chris "Zeuss" Harris, who previously worked with QUEENSRŸCHE on 2015's "Condition Hüman" and 2019's "The Verdict" LPs.

Guitarist Mike Stone, who rejoined QUEENSRŸCHE in 2021, contributed guitar solos to the band's latest studio album.

Since late May 2021, Stone has been handling second-guitar duties in QUEENSRŸCHE, which announced in July 2021 that longtime guitarist Parker Lundgren was exiting the group to focus on "other business ventures."

Stone originally joined QUEENSRŸCHE for the 2003 album "Tribe" and stayed with the band for six years before leaving the group.

For the past seven and a half years, drummer Casey Grillo has been filling in for original QUEENSRŸCHE drummer Scott Rockenfield, who stepped away from the band's touring activities in early 2017 to spend time with his young son.

In October 2021, Rockenfield filed a lawsuit against Wilton and bassist Eddie Jackson, alleging, among other things, breach of contract, breach of fiduciary duty and wrongful discharge. A few months later, Wilton and Jackson filed a countersuit against Rockenfield, accusing him of abandoning his position as a member of the band and misappropriating the group's assets to his own personal benefit. That dispute has since been settled out of court.

Wilton released his solo album, "Volume 1", on December 6 via Rat Pak Records.