Geoff Tate: ‘I’m glad Queensryche name battle didn’t get to court’

Former Queensryche rocker Geoff Tate has spoken out after reaching a settlement with his former bandmates over the use of the group’s name on Monday (28Apr14), confessing he’s glad the matter was resolved before it became a “nightmare” court case. Tate filed a lawsuit against Scott Rockenfield, Michael Wilton and Eddie Jackson shortly after he was fired from the band in 2012, insisting that he alone should be able to tour under the Queensryche banner.
The singer lost a bid for a temporary injunction to ban his former bandmates from performing as Queensryche without him, and on Monday (28Apr14), the two parties reached an “amicable settlement” over the naming rights.
According to the settlement, Jackson, Rockenfield and Wilton will now be “the sole entity recording and touring as Queensryche”, while Tate has been given “exclusive rights” to perform the songs from the albums Operation: Mindcrime I and II in their entirety “as a unique performance”.
In his first interview since the agreement was reached, Tate tells Billboard.com, “I’m very happy that it’s (legal battle) over and done and we can all move on with our lives. It’s been a long, bitter two years.
“We’ve been trying to work something out for months and months and months, and it’s like any kind of lawsuit – it’s just slow going. But finally I think the realisation that going to court over the whole thing was going to be a huge nightmare and huge financial mess for everybody that (we) really started to look at it more seriously and realistically (sic).”
And explaining the full extent of the agreement, Tate states, “It’s pretty similar to the Pink Floyd settlement, where one group got the name and Roger Waters got The Wall. It’s very similar to that. I retain Operation: Mindcrime and everything revolving around that, and they got the name, so it’s a win-win for everybody.”
Tate adds he will continue to tour under the Queensryche name this summer, adding, “We’re both allowed to do all of our pre-contracted dates as they were advertised, so once those dates are over then it all changes… I think my last date as Queensryche is September 1st, August 31st, something like that.”