Watch: Ex-QUEENSRŸCHE Singer GEOFF TATE Celebrates 64th Birthday On Stage In Fort Lauderdale

Former QUEENSRŸCHE singer Geoff Tate celebrated his 64th birthday last night (Saturday, January 14) during his concert at Amaturo Theater in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. Fan-filmed video of the audience singing "Happy Birthday" to the vocalist and Geoff blowing out the candles on his birthday cake can be seen below (courtesy of the Geoff Tate Fans Facebook page).

Tate's setlist was as follows (video courtesy of AIE TUBE):

01. Empire 00:00
02. Another Rainy Night (Without You) 06:19
03. Desert Dance 11:46
04. I Am I 16:07
05. Sacred Ground 20:04
06. Best I Can 24:04
07. Real World 28:55
08. Breaking The Silence 35:50
09. I Don't Believe In Love 40:30
10. Suite Sister Mary 45:17
11. Cold 59:28
12. Bridge 01:04:47
13. Screaming In Digital 01:08:12
14. Walk In The Shadows 01:11:52
15. Take Hold Of The Flame 01:15:13
16. Jet City Woman 01:22:50
17. Silent Lucidity 01:29:40

Encore:

18. Happy Birthday Geoff 01:38:38
19. The Chase 01:40:00
20. Queen Of The Reich 01:43:13

Tate's "Big Rock Show Hits" tour kicked off on December 1. Tate and his international band — featuring guitarists Kieran Robertson from Scotland, James Brown from Ireland and Alex Hart from Boston along with bass player Jack Ross from Scotland, drummer Danny Laverde from Cincinnati and keyboardist Jason Ames — hit 28 cities across the United States, including Cleveland, Phoenix, Dallas, Houston, Denver and Nashville, on an initial tour leg that culminated on Geoff's birthday.

Just five days after their last U.S. show in January, the band will embark on the "Empire" 30th-anniversary trek that begins in Rio De Janeiro, Brazil on January 19, then heads off to Europe for two weeks, quickly followed by three shows in Australia. After "the land down under," they'll return to Europe for a variety of shows that will last through mid-March. They'll return in early June for another extensive European tour.

In a recent interview with Conversaciones Necias, Tate was asked if he has given any thought to his eventual retirement. He responded: "I think I'll keep traveling and singing songs until I can't do it anymore. I really enjoy it. It's a wonderful lifestyle, and I'm very fortunate and very blessed to still be in good health and able to do it.

"People say to me all the time, 'When are you gonna get a real job?'" he lauched. "This is my job."

Four years ago, Tate appeared to be more open to the idea of someday retiring from recording and performing live. At the time, he told Brickhouse TV: "If and when I can retire at some point, what I'd like to do with my time [is] just spend it in the vineyard. There's a point where you've got to kind of hang up your rock n' roll shoes and only come out on occasion. I've got 19 albums, and I really want to do at least 20, so I think I have one more album in me, maybe two."

But in early 2021, Geoff seemingly had a change of heart, telling Aftershocks TV: "I can't imagine stopping — I really can't. I love traveling and I love performing, so I've got the perfect gig. [Laughs] I can't think of anything else I'd rather do than play music. So I guess as long as I'm still healthy and can still sing [the songs], I'll continue to do it."

In November, Geoff said that he had still not completely recovered after recently undergoing an unspecified heart procedure.

Tate discussed his health in an interview with Tulsa Music Stream. Asked if he was feeling back to a hundred percent nearly six months after going under the knife, Geoff said: "Yeah, I think I'm — I don't know if I'd say 'a hundred percent', but I think after the New Year I'll be approaching that number. It was a really difficult few months there. [I'd] never been [seriously] ill in my life — I'd never actually been in a hospital ever — so this was something that was quite a bit different to get used to."

Last August, Tate said that "it took about a month" before he "could make a sound" and eventually regain his singing voice.

"I'd never been in a hospital before in my life, or I'd never had anything wrong with me, and this was the first experience for me," he explained to in Ritchie Birnie. "And I was just amazed at how much it took out of me. I've always been a pretty physical, pretty strong person, but, man, when I came out of the hospital, I was weak. I could barely walk."

On July 3, 2022, Tate took to his Facebook page to share a photo of him with Dr. Sami Kueri from the department of cardiovascular surgery at the Universitäts-Herzzentrum Freiburg-Bad Krozingen (University Heart Center Freiburg) in Bad Krozingen, Germany, and he included the following message: "All my gratitude to the talented Dr. Sami Kueri for giving me a healthy heart!! Feeling so much better each day!"

Tate's recent tour celebrated the 30th anniversary of QUEENSRŸCHE's "Empire" and "Rage For Order" albums.

In April 2014, Tate and QUEENSRŸCHE announced that a settlement had been reached after a nearly two-year legal battle where the singer sued over the rights to the QUEENSRŸCHE name after being fired in 2012. Fellow original QUEENSRŸCHE members Michael Wilton (guitar),Scott Rockenfield (drums) and Eddie Jackson (bass) responded with a countersuit. The settlement included an agreement that Wilton, Rockenfield and Jackson would continue as QUEENSRŸCHE, while Tate would have the sole right to perform the albums "Operation: Mindcrime" and "Operation: Mindcrime II" in their entirety live.

Tate was replaced in QUEENSRŸCHE by former CRIMSON GLORY singer Todd La Torre.

Geoff will embark on a tour later this year to celebrate the 35th anniversary of "Operation: Mindcrime".