QUEENSRŸCHE Drummer Says "Return To History' Tour Will Focus On 'Great, Old Classic Material'

Joe Reinartz of Pollstar, the only trade publication covering the worldwide concert industry, has published a new interview with QUEENSRŸCHE drummer Scott Rockenfield and guitarist Michael Wilton regarding their legal battle with singer Geoff Tate over the band's name. An excerpt from the chat follows below.

Pollstar: Geoff's agency has told us how he can present himself onstage. Would you, first, agree that it has been settled as to how he can present himself?

Scott: No, I haven't heard any of that.

Pollstar: We were asked to list him as "QUEENSRŸCHE Starring Geoff Tate - The Original Voice."

Scott: To be honest, we haven't followed or gotten a lot of that information. What we're doing — we're going on with QUEENSRŸCHE. There was an injunction that Geoff tried to place in front of the courts a few weeks back. He was trying to stop us from using the name QUEENSRŸCHE and continuing to do business as such. We won that court case. It was denied that we had to stop using the name. So, in that, we are now moving on as the official QUEENSRŸCHE. It's Michael, Eddie [Jackson, bass], me, Parker Lundgren who plays guitar with us and our new singer, Todd La Torre. We just did our first show as the new QUEENSRŸCHE two weekends ago, here in the States, and we have more shows being booked throughout the world. Next year we're going out and doing a big tour that's going to be the "Return To History" tour for QUEENSRŸCHE, which is going to be focusing on our great, old classic material. We're moving on. What Geoff chooses to do will be in Geoff's hands. Our main focus is to do what we are doing and take it from there. But I personally haven't paid a lot of attention to what's going on over there; it's not really important to me right now.

Pollstar: I don't want to belabor the point but is it OK for him to use QUEENSRŸCHE?

Michael: I just want to give you a clearer definition on that. In our situation, as a business, we are 75 percent of the business so, thus, we believe and, as Scott iterated, the injunction was denied. We are allowed to use the name. Now, as far as what you have heard from his agency, I don't know exactly what he has been advised to do. The principal fact of the matter is we are the majority of the business and we have the right to use the name, and that's what we are doing.

Read the entire interview from Pollstar.