Whilst at the incredibly charismatic, iconic Ibiza night club Es Paradis for HRH Road Trip 12, Hard Rock Hell Radio’s very own Geoff Leppard caught up with Queensrÿche vocalist Geoff Tate prior to his show to talk about his summer tour, what he gets up to for down-time and his appearance later this year at Hard Rock Hell 16!
Geoff Tate: Good afternoon, Geoff. It’s great to see you.
Geoff Leppard: You’re probably used to the sun. I mean, I’m clearly not, but how’s it been for the last three days while you’ve been here? Have you got to tour around or?
GT: Yeah, I’ve been hiking all over the island. My wife and I, we like to hike, so we go on trails and we went and saw these sea caves that are amazing and went and visited the old city and several museums, some amazing churches. Quite a lot of history here
GL: Yeah, you were saying before we started talking, that this is the first time you’ve been on the island?
GT: Yeah, yeah, it’s the first time I’ve been here.
GL: So the road trip is going on for three days. It’s been incredibly successful. There’s been some great bands and I know a lot of people are really looking forward to seeing you tonight. What can they expect from the set?
GT: Well, tonight, we’re playing a very loud, very fast hour, so we’re gonna try to pack as much music as we can in the hour and kind of span the globe, so to speak and play stuff from….lets see, we have the EP, we have some stuff from Mindcrime. We have rage for Order. And, yeah, I think that’s it. Some real early stuff, so yeah, it would be a great treat.
GL: Yeah. Yeah. Are you still touring the operation MindCrime and Empire in their entirety? Do you still do the full shows or No?
GT: Well, we’ve been touring empire and Rage. It’s the 30 year anniversary of empire. It was when we started and we’re just doing the last of the shows in Spain, actually. Yeah, because Spain’s like one of the last countries to open up after Covid and we haven’t been able to play there in years, you know, so they kind of missed our turn of touring with Empire and Rage. So we’re gonna bring that to the Spanish audiences for the first time.
GL: Yeah, Yeah, that’d be incredible. I know a lot of people from the island are looking forward to seeing you. There’s been quite a big buzz. It’s not the only anniversary either. Operation MindCrime turned 35 this week, I believe.
GT: Yeah, isn’t that something?
GL: It’s incredible. I mean, I bought it the week it came out, I remember buying it, I think, I mean it’s aged incredibly well, but how do you feel revisiting the album when you play the whole thing live and knowing that you know, that it is 35 years old? How does it feel to have started that process so long ago?
GT: Well, you know, playing Operation Mind Crime is kind of a process for me. It’s a very angry album, you know, a lot of cynicism. It’s an album about people that are taking advantage of other people and you kind of have to kind of get yourself into that frame of mind, I find, at least for me. And it takes me a little bit to kind of like consciously think that way, you know, kind of put myself in the character, so to speak. I remember, just recently we played the album in its entirety and I hadn’t played it in several years and, it actually surprised me, how long it took me to sort of get into character, you know. Because I’m not generally an angry, frustrated person at all, and I have to kind of act that way, you know, in a sense.
GL: It’s a beautifully produced album. It sounds, it still sounds really, really well recorded, well produced, which some albums don’t hold up so well. But the story itself as well hasn’t really dated, has it, this thing about, you know, manipulation?
GT: No, I think it hasn’t really, cause it deals with classic topics that seem to not change very quickly. You know, I think there’s always gonna be greed and there’s always gonna be the strong trying to manipulate the weak, always gonna have that situation. And you’re always gonna have people that are dependent upon drugs to get them through every day, so these are topics that are kind of timeless, I guess.
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GL: You’ll be coming to see us at Hard Rock Hell in November in Great Yarmouth as well. So you don’t have to give the game away now, but will you be playing anything specific. Maybe one of the classic albums in full?
GT: it’s beginning in the November. Yeah? I don’t know exactly what we’re gonna play yet. We’ll keep it as a surprise.
GL: I guess what I’m carefully asking you is is while you’re out on tour, you’ll be touring a specific album or would you sort of decide on around the time what the set list might be there?
GT: Well, typically we’ve been playing the 30 year anniversary for empire. And then, for the uk, we’re doing the 35th anniversary of Operation Mind Crime. And in the States we have a kind of a greatest hits show, which is every song I ever released as a single or a video, which is really kind of one’s list. And we’re doing that in September, October, November and then no after, or beginning of November we switch over to Europe again and I don’t know exactly what we’re playing yet.
GL: Do you have any more dates now to complete on the tour or is the tour sort of coming towards an end?
GT: The tour never ends!! I hear that I have July and August off, but that keeps shrinking.
I might have like a month Off, Maybe five weeks…
GL: And what would you do with that time? Do you go away and sort of relax?
GT: Well, I’m supposed to go up to Seattle at that time. My wife says we have to go home for a little while at least. So we’re gonna go see if we still have a yard and say hi to our dog.
GL: Well, Geoff, it’s been a real pleasure to see you again. Thank you for meeting me today. Good luck with the set tonight.
GT: Thank you
