Geoff Tate – Classic Queensryche Lineup Given ‘Obscene’ Offer to Reunite
Though the vocalist is often the star of a band, plenty of groups have gone on to replace their original singers — one of which is Queensryche. Geoff Tate told Eddie Trunk that the classic lineup was offered “obscene amounts of money” to reunite and do a tour together, but he doesn’t think it’ll actually play out.
“I’m honestly not really expecting that to happen, basically because we’ve been offered just obscene amounts of money to get back together and do one tour. One tour and we’d never have to tour again. And a couple of people in the band turned it down, they’re not interested in doing it. So that would really be, I think, the only motivation that would get everybody together was an obscene amount of money. But that didn’t work, so there’s really no hope for it after that,” Tate said [via Blabbermouth].
“Money is not the motivator, and getting together for an artistic dream isn’t a motivator either, so what do you have? You have nothing. Obviously, both camps are happy in the position they’re at. I know for myself, I love my life — I love what I’m doing and I love traveling and playing music for people. And so far, I’m still kicking it at 63, still happy and healthy.”
Back in 2019, Tate admitted he thought it would make sense for Queensryche to eventually do a reunion if the parties involved were all able to agree on it. However, he’s currently content with the legacy the old version of the band left behind.
“It was a really, really tightly run ship and it was very lucrative and we had a lot of great records and did a lot of world touring and made a lot of friends and played a lot of music together,” the singer remarked. “And we had our time, and I’ll aways be grateful for that time that we had. That was a time, and it doesn’t mean that that time has to go on forever. There’s new times to be had and there’s more music to be made, there’s more songs to be sung and more audiences to play music for.”
We’ve heard it all before — the Eagles said they’d reunite “when hell freezes over,” and Axl Rose and Slash of Guns N’ Roses wouldn’t play together again “in this lifetime.” Both sentiments eventually became massively successful tours, which saw those people share stages together again.
Current Queensryche vocalist Todd La Torre doesn’t think a reunion with the original lineup will happen either, though.
“If you knew what I know, I don’t think that’s gonna happen,” he stated last year. “And other than the optics of it, why? What’s the point? We saw for 15 years what it sounded like.”
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