TATE: Playing With New Musicians After 30 Years Is 'Like Making Love With A Different Woman'

In a brand new interview with Amarillo.com, QUEENSRŸCHE singer Geoff Tate was asked about the legal battle between him and his former bendmates over the rights to the group's name.

"Well, it's my life, it's my music, my words, my creativity, my passion, you know?" he said. "What you hear on those records is me, it's my creativity, how I express myself. I can't think of not doing that, you know?"

Regarding the current touring lineup of his version of QUEENSRŸCHE, which consists of musicians he's known for years, Tate said: "They're all pros. I wanted to play with people that were great people that I admired, people that I like as people, people that I have a shared commonality with. They're fans of the music, and they bring their own interpretation to it, which I really like."

Tate also spoke about his current tour, which celebrates the 25th anniversary of the release of the classic QUEENSRŸCHE album "Operation: Mindcrime".

"We're playing the album in its entirety, which is very fun, very cool," Tate said. "Then we'll encore with a set of songs that are QUEENSRŸCHE's greatest hits, if QUEENSRŸCHE had greatest hits."

He continued: "[Playing the full album is] quite a challenge. It takes a certain sort of mindset to make that happen. This album ... is fairly intense.

"It's amazing, actually, because I'm playing this music live for the first time with different people, and I'm playing it with people who are very intense about it. They're not just painting by the numbers with it, just going through the motions, being bored with doing the same thing every day.

He added: "This is the music that got them off as young people, so they're throwing everything they've got into it. Every note, every beat they're playing like it's the last thing they're going to, and for me, I'm inspired by that, enthralled with it.

"This is what I always envisioned for it in the first place. For me, after being in the same band for 30 years with the same people, now it's like making love with a different woman."