Geoff Tate: Revisiting The Scene Of The (LIVE)crime

by Christa Titus

Armed with green tea and a balanced outlook on life both on and off the stage, Queensr˙che’s frontman recalls the tour captured on film by Operation:LIVEcrime and chats about projects he’s working on both in and outside of the band.  

When the phone rings at my house around 1 o’clock in the afternoon on the first day of September, it’s a perfect, sunny day of about 70 degrees without a hint of humidity. I usually would find an excuse to be under the perfect blue sky instead of indoors, but Geoff Tate, the lead singer for Queensr˙che, is the person on the other end of the line, so I’ve got good reason to be sticking close to the phone.

Because of the power and control Tate, 42, exerts with his voice, Queensr˙che fans often try guessing the span of his octave range. (The most common estimation is between six and eight.) His instrument complements the band’s songs instead of overshadowing them, and its authenticity always carries through in live performances, where he nails note after note with dead-on precision. Although its tone is smooth, his voice bears a distinct, commanding rumble as it carries across the wires from Washington state. Apparently the weather is cooperating over there as well, because he says it’s a beautiful fall day.

Known as a chronic espresso drinker, I ask him if he’s already fueled up on java since it’s just 10 a.m. on the West Coast. He reveals that he’s recently switched to green tea since his coffee consumption was getting a bit extreme. “A wintertime in Seattle without coffee is gonna be very difficult for me,” Tate admits, reflecting on himself with good humor. “It might be a transitional year for me.”

That shouldn’t be too difficult for Tate, because transition has always been his band’s trademark. From its first EP (Queensr˙che) to its last studio album, Q2k, the band has always ventured into new territories of sound and style while retaining a distinct tone that is unmistakably Queensr˙che. The rerelease of Operation:LIVEcrime as a CD and a DVD (the CD hits the streets Sept. 25; the DVD follows on Nov. 20) commemorates one of its major transformations: the Building Empires tour, where after years of opening for the likes of Metallica and Kiss, Queensr˙che’s status as a live performer changed from that of best-kept secret to can’t-miss event. Ten years after its original release as a boxed set in 1991, Operation:LIVEcrime still holds the power to drop the jaw and blow the mind, thanks to its inexhaustible energy, commanding rhythms, and a political storyline that remains frighteningly realistic.

During our conversation, Tate reminisced about LIVEcrime, as well as candidly answering such questions as when Queensr˙che hopes to begin writing its next album, how he felt about guitarist/songwriter Chris DeGarmo leaving the band in 1998, and his wariness toward the influence of the Internet. As a fan with several Queensr˙che ticket stubs to her credit and the band’s logo tattooed to her ankle, I hope all RequiredRock.com visitors enjoy reading these excerpts from the interview as much as I enjoyed conducting it.

RequiredRock.com: What lead to the decision to rerelease Operation:LIVEcrime on DVD?

Geoff Tate: Well, we hadn’t actually had it released in that format, and it seemed like it needed to be done, really. The format itself is really popular with the public these days, and LIVEcrime hasn’t been for sale, I think, oh, maybe eight or nine years now. It’s a good time, I think, to release that, and we get a lot of people asking us for the particular release a lot on our Web site, so, it just seemed like the right time.

RR: Is there any extra footage on the DVD?

G.T.: There’s an interview with me (he chuckles), kind of like what we’re doing right now, about the making of it and memories of making the record and also of the live filming, all those things.

RR: With movies, DVD viewers can pick alternate endings. Is there anything that makes [the DVD] interactive or anything like that on there?

G.T.: You know, I’m not sure. I’m not sure.

RR: You guys don’t have a say in that part of it?

G.T.: I suppose we have a say, but I’m just not the particular one that says. (laughs)

RR: Are you guys ever gonna tell us who killed Mary [one of the characters in Operation:mindcrime] or are we all just going to be hangin’ in the air?

G.T.: Well, that’s in the interview.

RR: Oh, you do reveal that?

G.T.: (He replies with a devious chuckle)

RR: I take it we have to wait to see the DVD to find that out.

G.T.: Well, possibly, yeah. It’s coded, so, you sort of have to figure out the code. It’s all very tedious.

RR: I know you said fans have been requesting to see LIVEcrime because it hasn’t been for sale for a while, but at the same time, this is going to be the third time, in a sense, Mindcrime has been released. Is there any concern that some fans might think it’s a bit of overkill, putting it out again?

G.T.: Oh, I suppose there’s always the possibility. I don’t really know what everybody else thinks. (laughs)I don’t concern myself with that, Christa.

RR: I was wondering about that because, trust me, I love the album, but it is the third time it’s going around.

G.T.: I don’t really see an issue or a problem or anything like that. The way I look at it, and this is kind of how I’ve always lived my life, you know, you make stuff. I do. I make stuff. I put it out there on the market for people to buy and somebody will buy it. Some people won’t, some people will. It’s just the way it works, you know?

RR: Back when you guys originally wrote Mindcrime, were you the band member who said, “Hey, I’ve got this idea—let’s do this concept album”?

G.T.: Yeah, I kind of brought the whole thing in and gave my speech in front of everybody about the idea and how enthusiastic I was about it, and after I got done talking for about a half an hour they said, “Well, I don’t know, I’m not too interested in that.” (laughs)None of them really jumped on the bandwagon for quite a while, really. I had to keep comin’ back to it and comin’ back to it and kind of sell ’em on it.

RR: What was it that inspired you to put this story together?

G.T.: You know, it was one of those things that you don’t really have an idea about any kind of sequence really. It was just sort of an intuition thing—where you feel somethin’ really strongly and if you sit there and try to intellectualize on it, it all goes away, so you just kind of react to your gut feeling [and] start doing it.

RR: So what did you do to convince them to go ahead and start working on it?

G.T.: Well, I decided to separate, you know, everybody. (chuckles)So I went to each guy individually . . .

RR: Oh, divide and conquer?

G.T.: Divide and conquer, yeah, and I started with the most powerful, Chris, and got him on my side, and they all kind of fell into line after that.

RR: What did you have to say to him to do that?

G.T.: Um, I really just had to promise him the moon. (laughs)No, I really just sort of started talking about it, knowing how to push his buttons, [about] which I won’t go into detail. I got him to sort of see the light and to get involved with it, and once he started writing for it, then it was easy from that standpoint, because once he gets involved with anything he’s really gung-ho. So I knew once I got him on my side everything would kind of fall into place.

RR: Once the album was released, when would you say is it that the five of you realized, “This is the album that’s taking us to mainstream attention.” Was there a particular concert or an interview or you went outside and all of a sudden all these people were recognizing you or anything like that that you can remember?

G.T.: No, it was more of a slow build-up, really. You know, Mindcrime, when it came out, wasn’t a big hit explosion. Most critics didn’t like it, most journalists didn’t get it, and therefore they didn’t like it ’cause they didn’t understand it. The audience definitely went over their heads. We had to go out and present it to people live, really, to get the idea across. And then once that started rolling along, we got offered the Metallica tour, which really was the perfect tour for us at the time to present Mindcrime in. And they were gracious enough to let us tour with them for, gosh, I guess, nine or 10 months in the States and also in Europe. So we had a huge audience to really present our stuff to. And then, that took us to another level of the sales, I suppose, and exposure, and then the record just stopped dead in the water. Our management [at the time, Queensr˙che was managed by Q Prime] came out on the road and had a meeting with us and said, “Well, you know, we think you guys should come off the road next month and head back in the studio, ’cause it looks like this record has gone as far as it’s gonna go sales-wise,” and we didn’t want to quit yet. We wanted just to keep touring and touring, so we talked them into keeping us out for a couple more months, talked them into taking what little money we had at that time and making a video. And once we made the video [“Eyes of a Stranger”] and it aired on MTV, then the doors just sort of opened up, which is kind of the way it is in America, you know? We’re kind of a culture, a consumer culture, so once we see something on TV, that gives us a reason to buy it. (laughs)

RR: Mindcrime didn’t get performed in its entirety live until when you did the Building Empires tour. Was that a little frustrating? I’m sure you guys initially would have wanted to do it from start to finish when it came out.

G.T.: Yeah, we did. But it just wasn’t really practical to; we weren’t a large enough force in the headlining world to really put on a show like that at the time. Our management convinced us that it wasn’t financially in our best interests to put something like that together, but to wait until we had a much more solid audience base around the world, and that came really quickly, actually, after the next record [Empire]. It was just the right time to do it.

RR: When you finally got to do this thing from start to finish, how physically demanding was it?

G.T.: Very. (laughs)Much more than I anticipated, actually. Physically and mentally and emotionally Mindcrime is sort of a very difficult album to get into and to perform, I think—for me, at least—and it was exhausting. Just exhausting. It was a long, two-hour set, and that section, [the] Mindcrime section, although it was the most exhilarating and my favorite part of the set, it still took its toll, you know? For me, writing records is like therapy. And you write something to get it out of your system, and you perform it for the same reasons, to sort of exercise the demons. And did I say “exercise” or “exorcise”? (laughs)Same thing, really. So, in this case, by the end of the tour I was drained, exhausted, ready to never hear music again. (laughs again)But, it was worth it. It was worth it to do it. It was a great tour and I have great memories of it and I’m glad it’s on some sort of visual format now.

RR: What are some of your positive and negative memories of that tour?

G.T.: Well, the most negative, I suppose, was the exhaustion and the insatiable hunger of fans, really, for more, more, more, more, more. But really, I think, the biggest disappointment is, what we felt we had started to become, and that was like, pop stars. So much media attention thrown at us and, they were talking about making action-figure-dolls [of us], and [the band thought] “Oh no, no no no, this merry-go-round’s going way too fast.” That’s when we decided to get off the road and sort of take hiatus for a while, let it all kind of simmer down, as it always does in the entertainment business. So we jumped off the road a couple years and made a record that we knew we wanted to make for the next one. But the high points, again, were really, the touring was amazing, going to a lot of different places we’d never been before, the people we met along the way, had some great experiences with other bands that played with us that we opened for and opened for us and, really, every night it was great to see the audience out there and how they were moved by music. That, to me, is the joy of performing live—seeing that reaction that people have and it’s always different; you never quite know how certain things are gonna affect them. I like to think of myself as a pretty good judge of character and be able to sort of predict what people will do, based upon my limited knowledge of them. But they always surprise me. Humans are very unpredictable and strange.

RR: Something else I find interesting around the release of Mindcrime is when it first came out we had President Bush in the White House, and now it’s being rereleased, and his son is in there.

G.T.: Hmmm.

RR: And I thought, “Isn’t that an irony?” Considering the material that’s on the album.

G.T.: Yeah, really, that is kind of strange, isn’t it? Hadn’t thought of that. (laughs)

RR: You mentioned Chris’ influence and his writing in the band. And of course, looking at Mindcrime, it’s impossible not to remember what he contributed to it while he was in Queensr˙che. Even though it’s been almost four years since he’s left, do you still miss performing or working with him at all?

G.T.: Yeah, I do, on a creative level. He’s incredible to work with. He’s one of those people that are rare in that fact that you can sit and communicate and verbalize your idea without ever having played any music. He can talk it all through and then when it comes to pick up the guitar or put the music together, there it is. You’ve verbalized it and you’ve planned it together and brain-stormed the whole idea up to a jumping-off point that’s really exciting. He’s really talented at doing that kind of thing. Excellent musician, too.

RR: You guys had no idea at all that he wasn’t happy? He just announced it and that was it?

G.T.: Yeah, he kind of sprung it on us and it probably wasn’t the most, the fairest thing he could have done, but, you know, people do things for their own reasons and, not defending his actions, but I can understand him, you know? It’s a hard thing to do to people that you’ve been together with for years and years and years to say, “Hey, you know, I’m not wantin’ to do this anymore.” It’s hard to do that.

RR: The only thing I heard as to why was just creative reasons. He just wasn’t happy with what he was doing?

G.T.: Well, I think it’s really best he speaks for himself on that. I don’t really want to be the one to sort of interpret his ideas.

RR: Once Kelly Gray came in, how was it, for the first time, sitting down writing with somebody new? How was that when you started working on [Q2k] with him?

G.T.: Well, Kelly is a polar opposite from Chris. Doesn’t articulate well at all but gets very emotional and puts all that angst into motion, into his playing and his artistic expression. He’s a rougher, kind of more primitive person than Chris, so, it was a completely different sort of person to get used to and it took us a while to sort of feel comfortable around him and be able to make something happen, but I think we’ve gotten to a point now, a way of working that where we’re comfortable with and we can make it happen now.

RR: You had worked with him briefly before [in the band] the Myth?

G.T.: Yeah, before Queensr˙che Kelly and I were in a band together, and we actually wrote a lot of the song titles that became Queensr˙che songs for the Warning album, [they] were originally Kelly and my compositions that I took a lot of the lyrics that he and I had written for songs we had in Myth and then used to lyrics and put them to different music when Queensr˙che was doing its first record, so it’s kind of funny, ’cause he came to rehearsal one day and started playing the original version of "Take Hold of the Flame," and what was really weird was I knew it, I knew all the melodies stuck in the back of my head, [but] I hadn’t heard that song in . . . 23 years. Kind of odd, isn’t it?

RR: Are you in touch with Chris at all or no?

G.T.: Yeah, I see him probably once every couple months; we get together and have coffee—well, tea for me now—kind of keep up with what’s goin’ on. We’ve been plannin’ on doing something together outside of Queensr˙che in the future, when the time is right, but he’s been really doin’ his Spys4Darwin thing [DeGarmo’s new band], I’m starting a solo project that starts recording next week [at the time of this interview, that date was Sept. 13] and then we also have a Queensr˙che record that starts in January we’re writing for.

RR: Well, you just answered three other questions I had; that’s good.

G.T.: And then we just got done doing this live release for our new record company, Sanctuary, that comes out the same time the EMI thing is coming out, it’s a big double-live record. [Tate is referring to Live Evolution, due for release the same day as the Operation:LIVEcrime reissue. The Live Evolution DVD/VHS will be available Oct. 9.]

RR: I guess they’re going to be separate selections than Mindcrime?

G.T.: Well, they’re two different, completely separate projects. The Sanctuary project is sort of a retrospective of songs off every one of our records throughout our career. It was recorded at a live show that we did this summer, and it’s pretty amazing when there’s a live [audience].

RR: Is your solo project called the Geoff Tate Experience?

G.T.: Yeah, well, I don’t know about the “experience,” I’m just calling it by my name right now.

RR: Is this kind of a thing to blow off steam for yourself; you just want to go out there and perform and not have anything over your head? What’s the impetus behind it?

G.T.: Well, it’s actually not so much that but a completely different musical avenue for me to experiment with, really. I can’t really do everything I want to do within Queensr˙che, it’s really not possible. This project allows me the musical freedom to sort of experiment with other types of music that I really like and to play with different people, which is really good for me at this point in my life, I think, and give me another creative outlet, really, that I’ve been craving for quite a while.

RR: What kind of music are you looking to work in?

G.T.: Well, it’s rock music, but it’s, ah, it’s just different, I guess, is how. I can’t really be too detailed about it ’cause I’m not a journalist. (laughs)

RR: You could try.

G.T.: I guess it’s just really the people. Playing with different people brings out different music, and although we’ve tried in Queensr˙che to sort of stay out of the box of other people’s perceptions of what we should be, we still have to sort of conform to a certain type of box in order to sell records and to please our audience, you know? And that can get real tedious if you see your limitations all the time in front of you, so this project allows me not to have to concentrate on my . . . on my . . . on my box. (laughs)I can build another one, you know?

RR: Would you be doing more saxophone work with this?

G.T.: Possibly. I haven’t gotten any saxophone tracks on this new record but I’m really havin’ a fun time with it ’cause I’ve got four singers in my band and everyone’s reallygood, so we’ve really been havin’ a fun time with singing, real intricate-kind of R&B-, gospel-sort-of-tinged, sort of like stuff you might hear in New Orleans with a really moody guitar and keyboard figure. And the rhythm section is really tight, but, how can I say, it’s looser than what Queensr˙che is. [Bassist] Eddie [Jackson] and [drummer] Scott [Rockenfeld] are real mechanical, and this has got more of a humanistic kind of feel to it. I know it all sounds very artsy, doesn’t it? (laughs)But it’s hard to explain.

RR: No, that’s pretty good articulation.

G.T.: Both things I really like. I love the mechanical feel that Eddie and Scott have, but I also like this other feel that my other rhythm section has; each is very different so that’s what I like about it, the fact that they’re two really different animals, yet I can still kind of pet both of them.

RR: Are you also contributing to a Queen tribute album?

G.T.: Oh, yeah, I did that already. I sang the song “Somebody to Love.”

RR: How did you get approached for that?

G.T.: Well, they called my management and said, “Gosh, could Geoff do this?” I love Queen, so, I said, “Yeah, send me over the music.” And, boom, they did it. I did it in an afternoon.

RR: You said January is when Queensr˙che should be going back in the studio?

G.T.: Well, that’s when we begin writing for the new record, after the holidays. I don’t know when we’re actually gonna get together and record it. We gotta write some music for it first.

RR: Do you have any idea where you think your lyrical content is going to lead on this particular one? We’d touched on what [the album] Promised Land was dealing with [regarding the trappings of fame] and Q2k, from what I could tell, was more about relationships in your life. Do you have any idea where you think you might be burrowing into at this stage?

G.T.: Absolutely. But I’m not gonna talk about it yet.

RR: Well, you knew that was my next question.

G.T.: (Laughs)It’s a pretty solid idea that I really want to explore, I just have to sorta have the right music to go with it. I’m waiting for January to roll around, when everybody’s commitments are fulfilled and we can begin.

RR: Given all of the different experimentations that are coming out in harder rock music, because the big thing now is the rock/rap hybrid, do you ever see Queensr˙che as maybe dabbling in any of that?

G.T.: Oh, no. No. We’re not the rap generation. At least I’m not. I have no interest in trying to sound like a . . . a rap guy. I’m a singer, you know? There’s singers, and there’s rappers. Rappers rap because they can’t sing. That’s my take on it, at least.

RR: Are there any songs in that style that you happen to enjoy either musically or lyrically?

G.T.: Rap?

RR: Well, anything—Limp Bizkit, Linkin Park. Any of those bands that you listen to at all?

G.T.: Uh, no. I haven’t heard anything I would like or would buy. Not my thing.

RR: How do you take care of your voice both on and off the road?

G.T.: Oh, I just try to take care of myself, really. Not push it too hard on the extra-cirricular activities. Get lots of rest and drink tons of water. Avoid heroin. (chuckles)

RR: Has that ever been a problem?

G.T.: No. (laughs)

RR: I have noticed as the years have gone by that you definitely have put on more muscle. Is that part taking care of yourself—just keeping in shape helps keep your voice pretty limber?

G.T.: Well, yeah, ’cause your voice is your body, and your body is part of your voice, and everything is all connected, and I just find that singers need to exercise a lot and stay in shape and try to just try to live your life with moderation, I suppose. That’s really the thing.

RR: Has touring physically become easier or more difficult over the years?

G.T.: Oh, I think it’s more difficult the older you get. Even though you try to stay in shape and exercise and all that, your body just gets to a point where you can’t do certain things anymore. It’s not as limber or you can’t recover back from an injury or a cold or something like that as quickly, or a hangover, even. So you have to kind of be careful.

RR: I’ve noticed that you seem to do a majority of the interviews for the band. Have you ever had to before a show just put a limit on how many you do since you’ve got to save it for that evening?

G.T.: Well, yeah, I just really need like an hour before the show to kind of prepare. Up until then I can go pretty much all day. As long as I don’t have to run a marathon or play a baseball game for charity or something I’m all right. But then again, I enjoy working out every day, either going on a long bicycle ride or going to the gym or jogging or something everyday. It kind of warms you up for the show as well.

RR: How often are you online either chatting with fans or posting messages to them?

G.T.: Oh, probably not as often as they would like. I just have a real problem with the Internet. (laughs)

RR: Which might be?

G.T.: Oh, you know, it’s a great thing and yet it’s a real awful thing as well. I guess it’s not either of those—it’s the people that manipulate it. I don’t really think it’s really that important that I communicate with people often, you know? I think when we have something to say or something that we’re offering for sale, or if there’s going to be an event or something, then that’s the time to really communicate with people. I’m not out to become personal friends with everybody who listens to Queensr˙che, you know? I enjoy that fact that they’re interested and I’m amazed that they are interested, actually, and grateful, but it’s difficult when you have so many people that are so interested in you to become personally involved with each one. It’s impossible to live your life in any normalcy, it’s impossible to do that, so I just sort of stay off the Internet as much as I can, and we seem to have periodic interviews on the Internet or chats and things like that, that seems to work well for people that become accustomed to the frequency.

RR: How accurate would you say information is that gets passed around, because there are a lot of fan sites out there, and I wonder, about how accurate would you say the information is that gets posted on them about Queensr˙che?

G.T.: Oh, I would say it was completely inaccurate. How would they know? The only official source for anything is Queensryche.com. That’s the actual official Web site that we endorse and we provide content for. Everything else is suspect to somebody’s else’s interpretation or their manipulation, really. That’s really the thing that bugs me, is anybody can be anyone they want on the Internet. They can say whatever they want and no matter how hurtful it is for other people or damaging. You know, there’s no consequences, really. In the real world, you have lawsuits you can aim at people for saying untruths about you or your family or damaging things, but on the Internet it’s still kind of virgin territory, which hasn’t been legislated, which, on one hand is good, but on the other hand, geez, there’s some really ugly people out there that do some mean things.

RR: I don’t really know as far as legislation goes if they’re ever going to put something on there or not, but if you can put something in the newspaper and be sued for it because it’s published, I would think the Internet would be the same thing, but it is so huge, it’s difficult to.

G.T.: Well, yeah, it’s hard to actually pinpoint who did it, because who uses their real name on the Internet? [There’s] no way to police it. So, I think it’s really a matter of just talking about and educating people to the fact that they can’t believe everything they read or hear.

One Internet posting that’s definitely true: Queensr˙che is sponsoring a community blood drive Sept. 25 in Seattle (which can be verified at Queensryche.com) in response to the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. The band will roll up their sleeves to donate blood, and proceeds from the sales of commemorative T-shirts will also support the cause. The drive coincides with the record release/listening party being held for Live Evolution.

Home | Bootleg List | Sounds | Articles | Pictures | Road Trips | Links | Credits | QR Bootleg Guide

Created and Maintained by BTS