Geoff Tate: I Got Paid a ‘Large Amount of Money’ for Giving Up Queensryche Name

The recent battle between singer Geoff Tate and his former Queensryche bandmates turned ugly, as the two parties fought over the Queensryche name while they both continuing to use the moniker. Finally, after legal proceedings, Tate was forced to part ways with the Queensryche name, but apparently he got a fat stack of cash in return.

On April 28, Geoff Tate and Queensryche reached a settlement after battling for almost two years. Original members Michael Wilton, Eddie Jackson and Scott Rockenfield emerged with the Queensryche name, but now it appears that they agreed to buy out Tate for the moniker.

In a new interview with 'Daytime at Nine,' Tate showed up to promote a San Antonio, Texas, performance, but also spoke of the Queensryche name legal battle. "Well, it's a farewell for me to the name Queensryche," Tate remarked about his final shows performing as Geoff Tate's Queensryche. "We finally settled our differences with the former band. And they get to keep the name and I get to keep the large amount of money they paid me for it. Which is nice, so that's why I'm taking a year off. [Laughs]"

Tate also spoke about plans to record a trilogy of new albums under the new name of Operation: Mindcrime, an ode to the iconic Queensryche concept album of the same name. "I'm gonna make a new record," Tate declared. "I'm going in the studio in the winter to record a trilogy project, which is three records, all at the same time, and then we'll release them over time. But it's a very involved story, in conceptual format, which is what I like to do."

Tate continued, "We're calling the new band Operation: Mindcrime. And it's kind of similar to the situation that the guys in Black Sabbath went through when they couldn't use the name, so they used the name of one of their more popular records, 'Heaven and Hell', and went out and made new music and toured with that name."

Check out the full interview with Tate above.