QUEENSRŸCHE Frontman: Anybody That Can't See BUSH Is A Bold-Faced Liar Is An Idiot

Jeff Kerby of KNAC.COM recently conducted an interview with QUEENSRŸCHE frontman Geoff Tate. A few excerpts from the chat follow:

KNAC.COM: QUEENSRŸCHE has been pretty lucky by not having been pigeonholed into a genre like "hair metal" or some other classification that would shorten the group's shelf life. Wouldn't you agree?

Tate: I think that for us, tenacity has probably been the biggest component to our survival. We just won't stop. (laughs) Never say never, you know? I think that after "Empire", we made the conscious decision to follow our musical muse and not jump on the commercial bandwagon. They were talking action figure dolls and that kind of stuff. That wasn't what we got into music for in the first place. That was a turning point for us. We went really underground and took four years off in between records which is just unheard of in pop life. We made the conscious decision to stay away from that and make records that were pleasing to us. We wanted to make the kind of records that if you shared them with somebody, they'd have that same feeling rather than making the kind of records that please people where we would end up not pleasing anybody.

KNAC.COM: When you raise the sign during the current "Mindcrime" performance referencing the Clinton blowjob, isn't it one of the biggest political travesties of all time that we can get an inquiry into what a chunky girl does with her mouth but we can't get one about an illegal war or countless unjustified deaths? Is it all right wing, Bible-thumper driven?

Tate: You've got me. I don't understand it. I think that perhaps people are honestly afraid of their government. They are afraid of the spin-doctors they see. Think about it — not too many months ago, if you said anything challenging about this administration in public you were lambasted or raked over the coals. Letters were written into the newspapers in any city in America that were attacking people who were unsympathetic to the war effort. Of course, that was spun to where you hated the enlisted people. Of course, that is not what I'm saying. What I'm saying is that I just don't agree with the enlisted people being over there. It's amazing. I think people see that perhaps and are frightened. What is a regular guy going to do? A regular guy doesn't have millions and millions of dollars to take on somebody who is trying sue you over something. No, all a regular guy can do is hang onto your own livelihood here and hope that you can do the best you can with the given situation. There is this hope though that someone will sacrifice themselves and be the target and it will gain momentum and something will happen as the result of it. I mean, it's going to take one brave person to do it.

KNAC.COM: Doesn't that seem like an impossible task in an egocentric society? Wouldn't such a movement have to be grassroots? I mean, we started doing these interviews like five years ago, and we are still talking about at best a 50-50 Republican-Democrat proposition. There is grouping of citizens in this country that just won't change their opinions regardless of the facts. Is it just a Red State issue or is it abortion…what is it?

Tate: I think it is taking the Christian right out. Just take it out. It's a bad idea.

KNAC.COM: Who really thinks Bush goes home and prays to a God that isn't his reflection in the mirror? Is a picture of a guy closing his eyes and clasping his hands in the media that powerful?

Tate: Anybody that can't see that guy is a bold-faced liar when he speaks is an idiot — an absolute idiot who should probably be put out of his misery.

KNAC.COM: Isn't that the downfall of a Democratic society — every uninformed Twinkie eater gets to have an equal vote? You have your haves and have-nots monetarily and you have your haves and have-nots intellectually and the chasm between the two gets wider every day.

Tate: You know it's an interesting psychological issue in our country. We have millions and millions of people who have gaping holes in their lives. They feel empty like they are disconnected or need to have something more. That's how they get lured into the whole Christian fellowship. The Christians will take anybody on — you could be a serial killer and someone is going to be there going "join us brother in the joy of God! Our version of God." You know, it's a powerful, powerful attraction and you have all of these people with this gaping hole and they're all looking for salvation and completeness, so they all get lured into the Christian religion and all of a sudden they have a voice and they have power. They can change policy in the government and change the way things function.

Read the entire interview at KNAC.COM.