transcript

Speaker 1:
[00:00] This episode is brought to you by Cellular Performance Institute. Is your body beat up and broken down?

Speaker 2:
[00:06] Look into stem cells today. It could change your life.

Speaker 1:
[00:09] Go to CellularPerformanceInstitute.com. For all you Jiu Jitsu heads out there, catch me at 10th Planet Rochester, Saturday, May 9th. That's 10th Planet Rochester, New York. Contact staff at TeamEmpire.us. See you there. Look Into It.

Speaker 3:
[01:04] You can tell it's real because it looks so fake.

Speaker 1:
[01:10] Hello everybody, and welcome to another episode of Look Into It. Tonight, one of the greatest vocalists of all time, the original voice of Queen's Rye, please welcome Geoff Tate.

Speaker 4:
[01:21] What's up, Geoff?

Speaker 5:
[01:23] Hey Eddie, how are you doing?

Speaker 1:
[01:24] I'm doing great, man. It's an honor to have you on. Not just my mom, Rushmore, but everybody. You, Rob Alford, Bruce Dickinson, Ronnie James Dio. I mean, Geoff Tate's always in the conversation. How does that feel?

Speaker 5:
[01:47] Well, it's really flattering, actually, to be on Mount Rushmore like that.

Speaker 1:
[01:51] Of course, man.

Speaker 5:
[01:53] Those are some great heavy rock singers there, you know?

Speaker 2:
[01:56] Yeah.

Speaker 5:
[01:57] Alford and Dickinson and Dio, wow, yep. It's a good company to be in.

Speaker 2:
[02:03] Oh, yeah.

Speaker 5:
[02:03] Oh, yeah.

Speaker 1:
[02:04] Oh, yeah, man. I remember the first time I... You probably heard this story a million times, but the reason I even became a musician and thought I could make it in the music business was because of Queen of the Reich. I thought, like, oh, I think I was like 12 or 13, and you guys blew up with the EP, and Queen of the Reich was the single. Me and my friends all watched it on some local metal video night, and we thought, oh, shit, all you need is one song and you could be huge? Oh, man, anybody, I could write one song. So the delusion, the delusion got me into trying to be a rock star. And by the time I figured out it wasn't as easy as just writing one good song, I had already talked so much shit. Now I dug myself in so deep that I couldn't back out. Now I'm like, damn, I gotta, I gotta try to get a record deal somehow. I thought it was going to be easy. I thought you write one, one song, I just like you guys did and then you blow up. But I was super delusional. But if it wasn't for that delusion, I would have stopped making music. You guys.

Speaker 5:
[03:08] Yeah, we all need our delusions, don't we?

Speaker 1:
[03:10] Yeah. Yeah, totally. And then when The Warning came out, your first album, like a lot of people, I hear this from a lot of people, it didn't hit me at first. At first I thought, man, like, I don't know what it was. It just maybe it was the production or something. I'm not sure, but I didn't know what it was. Metallica was coming out and all that. And then you guys opened up for Kiss during the Animalize Tour. And I'm a huge Kiss fan. And you guys blew Kiss away with The Warning. And so it was at the Long Beach Arena. And I remember I'm like, dude, I gotta go back and revisit this album. And then I got heavily into it. And now The Warning's one of the greatest albums of all time. I don't know which one's better, Rage for Order or The Warning. Rage for Order, I've always said, is my favorite album.

Speaker 5:
[03:59] I guess it depends on what mood you're in. Yeah, it just depends on what mood you're in.

Speaker 1:
[04:03] Oh, man, there's so many great songs on The Warning. I mean, Roads to Madness. Oh, that opening verse. Did you write the opening verse to? Yeah.

Speaker 5:
[04:14] That's probably not the song you're going to want to put on first thing in the morning and jam out to. It's probably more of a late night thing, right?

Speaker 2:
[04:24] Most of this is memory now.

Speaker 1:
[04:27] I love that. That whole first verse is so good.

Speaker 2:
[04:30] There you go.

Speaker 6:
[09:19] Where we're going?

Speaker 1:
[09:27] The warning had so much screaming. You were going off, like, they just let you scream your ass off. I mean, all the screams in Roads to Madness, and then the big scream at the end of the intro for Take Hold of the Flame. There's so many goddamn screams. You were just going off. Can you tell me a little bit about your vocal? I mean, you sound super operatic, but everyone just assumed you were like some opera singing student or something.

Speaker 5:
[10:00] Yeah, I did study briefly with a wonderful vocal teacher, maestro David Kyle, who was living in my area at the time in Seattle. And he was a pretty incredible teacher and gave me really the basics for singing, you know, the support and the discipline it takes. And it's something I've kind of carried on, you know, throughout my life, is the instruction I got from him, really. So yeah, thank you, David.

Speaker 1:
[10:30] So you weren't actually like a choir or it was just a one on one lesson type of deal?

Speaker 5:
[10:36] Oh, I wasn't. Yeah, I wasn't. I wasn't choir, you know, since I was a child. Yeah, I sang in church choir. I played in school band through elementary school, junior high and into high school. I played trumpet and studied piano. And then later studied voice, you know, I'm still studying. I just bought an accordion. I'm going to teach myself how to play that.

Speaker 1:
[11:04] Now, like over the years, you know, there's been so many bands out there lately that their lead vocalist is just the vocals at a certain age just seemed to fall apart. Like Paul Stanley, like he had to allegedly use like, you know, he was lip syncing the last couple of tours or whatever. And you're hearing it from like Axl Rose. His voice is kind of, I mean, Vince Neil, but you're in your sixties and your voice sounds like, I mean, I was just listening to your new single Power, and your voice sounds exactly the same as, you know, it did in the eighties. Like, how is that possible?

Speaker 5:
[11:43] Well, you know, when I was a young man, I was approached by this sort of mysterious man who said his name was Satan. And I made a deal with him and, you know, it worked out for me.

Speaker 1:
[11:58] Oh damn, okay. Your joke.

Speaker 5:
[12:01] It's a joke, Eddie. Hell if I know. I mean, I just sing, you know, I don't do anything different than I've ever done. And it just works out for me, you know.

Speaker 1:
[12:11] It's, I guess, I guess, you know, maybe it's like known like in the opera world that yeah, as long as you take care of your voice, you could sing at a high level into your, you know, 70s and 80s, I guess. I don't know that, but it just seems.

Speaker 5:
[12:31] Yeah, actually, you know, the vocal coach that I mentioned earlier, David Kyle, he sang beautifully into his late 80s had an amazing operatic voice and could really do it, you know? So I don't know. I think, yeah, as long as you take care of it and work it out, you know, it's like a muscle, you know, you take care of your muscle and you use it, use it or lose it, they say, you know?

Speaker 1:
[12:55] You set an incredible pace, though. I mean, like a guy like Bob Dylan or like Willie Nelson. Yeah, they're not really setting like a high bar vocally, so they could be like 110 and still pull off those odds, you know what I mean? But you're like doing the hardest shit possible. That's insane.

Speaker 5:
[13:17] Yeah, well, I hope to be singing at that age, you know, 110. That would be something.

Speaker 1:
[13:23] That would be incredible.

Speaker 5:
[13:24] But with modern technology, we all might be able to make that soon, you know?

Speaker 1:
[13:30] Like some kind of AI cyber voice or something. Maybe like a voice, a vocal cord transplants or something.

Speaker 5:
[13:41] There you go. They could do it with eyeballs now, you know, and, you know, all your major organs. Why not your vocal cords? You know?

Speaker 1:
[13:49] Yeah.

Speaker 5:
[13:49] Yeah.

Speaker 1:
[13:50] Or stem cells like like shoot them up with stem cells. Yeah, right. After the warning, there was the EP. The first album was a warning. Took me a little bit to get into it, but then it's one of the greatest albums ever. And then the same thing with Rage for Order. I remember going to the record store and looking at the image you guys chose and like Scott Rockenfield's hair. And your hair was kind of weird too. And like Chris DiGarmo, I got to admit, it turned me off. I was like, oh no, what are they doing? It's some kind of like French glam metal thing. And I didn't buy it. I go, you know what? You know, Slayer just came out and I'm like, no, I can't do this.

Speaker 5:
[14:34] Actually, it was inspired by Ozzy Osbourne.

Speaker 1:
[14:38] Really? Really?

Speaker 5:
[14:39] Yeah. Yeah. Look at Ozzy's albums at that time. And then look at Queensryche, Rage for Order, same. Although I think we did a little better.

Speaker 1:
[14:47] Ultimate Sid Ozzy though, right? Like, yeah. Yeah. Yeah, totally. Totally. But then I went to my friend Matt's house and he had it and he and he put it on. And man, it just blew me the fuck away. Rage. Look at this. I made 10th Planet is the name of my jujitsu association. And I made this shirt. This is the cover of Rage for Order because that's my favorite all time album. That's the the album of all time. Rage for Order. Not a bad song on that. On that from top to bottom. That album is incredible. And this is this shirt is the reason we're doing this interview because this is like my lowest selling. No one understands it. No one gets it. It's so obscure. We sold like five, maybe, maybe six. But it's my favorite shirt. And I wore it on a podcast. And your guitar player, Kieran, he saw me wearing it on a podcast. And he's like, oh, shit, this guy's got to be insanely into Queens, right? So he contacted me last week and said, hey, we're doing a record release party for Operation Mindcrime 3 in LA. I want to personally invite you. And I'm like, are you out of? Oh, my God. It was like I was at my son's baseball game. And that's when I got the call. And I was like, just, oh, my God, are you kidding me? I'm going to get to meet Geoff Tate. Oh, yeah. I was like, dude, super stoked.

Speaker 5:
[16:13] How old is your son?

Speaker 1:
[16:14] What was that?

Speaker 5:
[16:16] How old is your son?

Speaker 1:
[16:17] He's 14. He's 14.

Speaker 5:
[16:18] Oh, okay. He must be playing like junior league baseball, like Babe Ruth, something like that.

Speaker 1:
[16:25] He's playing. It's called a travel ball in California. It's called travel. It's above Little League. There's Little League and then travel balls year round. And really, travel ball are run by high schools that have a farming team. So by the time they get to high school, they've already been on that travel ball team a few years. And then they get into high school and they're ready to go. And yeah, he's all about baseball. He doesn't care about jujitsu at all. I teach jujitsu, but he doesn't care about that at all. It's all baseball all day. And you know, back to Rates for Order though, the killing words. Did you write those lyrics?

Speaker 5:
[17:06] Yeah, I wrote the music and the words to that.

Speaker 1:
[17:08] Oh my god, you wrote the music too? Damn, dude, I love that song so much. I love it, but I will admit, though, when you sang it live on Unplugged, the chorus, you did the low part, you didn't do the operatic part. And I was like, oh, that's my, that part is so amazing. It's, why did you choose to do the low part? Was it just too much acoustic?

Speaker 5:
[21:26] No, it's, we were just trying some different arrangements of our songs acoustically. You know, I think when you like get above a certain octave, acoustic, when you're singing with acoustic instruments, you sound ridiculous. It just sounds ridiculous, right? There's no way you kind of sit into the track. You can't sit in, you know, the track with acoustic guitars when you're singing like that. And so we tried a different approach to it that I quite loved. Actually, it took the song in a whole different way, you know?

Speaker 1:
[21:59] I love it too. It's just, I like the album version. I like the high operatic. It's over. I love my voice and shit, but damn, I love that. But I did notice I was watching some, you guys are doing a lot of acoustic stuff, like in bars and stuff. And you got Kieran, Kieran's kind of doing that high part on Killing Words, right? And you got the other guys kind of doing it, right? It seems like...

Speaker 5:
[22:26] I don't actually know. We do it, we do it. We have done it. We've done it so many different ways and so many different situations. I can't remember exactly maybe what you're referencing to. But yeah, we tried it with two part, three part harmonies before. We tried it just with me singing. Yeah, it just depends on what we're doing with it, you know? And that's the beauty of music. You could take any song, any song, and make it in the style of a genre. You could place it in any genre. It just depends on the instrumentation and how you do it, right? Yeah.

Speaker 7:
[22:57] Stem cells, they could do some wild shit down there.

Speaker 1:
[22:59] You know, I got the stem cells in my shoulder. My shoulder was jacked. I went down there, it worked, man.

Speaker 7:
[23:04] Eric Ander's neck was f***ed up, and then he went down and got stem cell treatment. Now it doesn't bother him at all anymore.

Speaker 5:
[23:09] I definitely recommend CPI.

Speaker 8:
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Speaker 4:
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Speaker 3:
[23:15] I just come and I do stem cells to make sure that I'm resetting my body and staying healthy.

Speaker 7:
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Speaker 8:
[23:23] CPI stem cells is where you want to go.

Speaker 3:
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Speaker 8:
[23:27] They do the best work in the world.

Speaker 3:
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Speaker 9:
[23:30] If there's anything causing you to not live the quality of life that you like, then this investment is more than worth it.

Speaker 8:
[23:38] When it comes to the science of stem cells, no one comes close to CPI. There's not even a close second.

Speaker 4:
[23:42] For a free doctor call to see if stem cells is the right option for you, visit us at CPISTEMCELLSCOM.

Speaker 5:
[23:50] As you can see, I got a lot of cover songs that are out these days and people take and make them a complete opposite of what they were.

Speaker 1:
[24:02] AI makes that possible now.

Speaker 5:
[24:04] Even before AI, real musicians did that.

Speaker 1:
[24:08] But it's so easy with AI now because when you write a song, the songwriter might think like, wow, this might work reggae, this might work country, this might work techno, but it's always going to be in your head because the songwriter is never going to take the time and money to make those versions. It's just like in your head. But now with AI, you could take your song, upload it, and say, make it a country song, and it does it in 20 seconds. So it's, and you're like, damn, it does work country. Damn, it does work reggae. Like instantly. Something that you would have never had the time or money to do, just a thought, you know? And now it's like, shit. Now everybody's doing it just like that. It's crazy. I will remember Unplugged is probably, that's my favorite live Queensryche performance ever. You guys crushed that unplugged. That unplugged was insane. But my number one favorite song, all time, Queen's Ride, New Regiel. Did I even say that right? I don't even, it's a...

Speaker 5:
[28:56] No.

Speaker 1:
[28:57] New Regiel?

Speaker 5:
[28:57] It's German. It's German, it's Neue Regel.

Speaker 1:
[29:01] Neue Regel, okay.

Speaker 5:
[29:03] Neue Regel, yeah.

Speaker 1:
[29:04] I love that song so goddamn much, I remixed it into a rap song.

Speaker 5:
[29:10] Oh yeah.

Speaker 1:
[29:10] Yeah, it's called Take My Spot.

Speaker 5:
[29:12] I heard it. Did you send it to you? I heard it, yeah, Karen sent it to me, yeah. Yeah, it's crazy. He sent to me, didn't give me an explanation or a backstory. And I wrote it back, I went, what the fuck is that? What's happening? And that's cool, I was really happy that you did that. That was very cool.

Speaker 1:
[34:59] Yeah, man, it was all tribute. It wasn't like-

Speaker 5:
[35:02] Did you do that on AI or what?

Speaker 1:
[35:03] No, no, no, we just, Danny Loner, he formerly of Nine Inch Nails, he's an amazing producer, engineer. He's one of my best friends. We've made like 30 songs together, and that was one of them. He's a high-level engineer producer, so what I do is I'll make demos with other engineers. I'll produce and I'll have an engineer put together a song like we did with that, then I'll take it to Loner, complete, like a complete demo, and I go, do you want to fucking make this sound even better? And he listened to it and he was blown away. He had never even heard the Queensryche song before, but he's the one that made it sound like, you know, beautiful. I mean, most of it is just samples from the actual song. A couple of stuff I asked. I mean, the drums, the bass, there's a bass line. If you hear it with good bass, you'll hear that the bass is doing some crazy shit too. I did that. And the Ebo guitar at the end, which is based on the keyboards from the song, I played a different version on Ebo at the end of the outro. But it's mainly new reggae. And with a rapper over it. I don't know how many times he said the N word in that. I think the N word is in there like 30 times. Yeah. And then the first album you guys put out that didn't take any time for me to get into is once you guys put out Operation Mindcrime, that was just instant. Operation Mindcrime was instant. For all your 10th Planet Jujitsu merchandise, please visit 10thplanetjj.com/shop. We also got a Look Into It t-shirt that just dropped. Thank you very much for your support. Revolution Calling turns out was based on a song called Rage For Order that didn't make the Rage For Order album. Isn't that right?

Speaker 5:
[37:11] Yeah, we finished it too late for the record, so we had to save it for something else, yeah.

Speaker 1:
[37:17] Yeah, then yeah, it's amazing. It's like the marching, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that. Yeah, Scott Rockenfield, that's a bad motherfucker right there, man. Sucks that, you know, eventually, you know, you know, like all bands, like no, no bands always, they stay together. But you guys stay together long ass time. I remember saying, yeah, I remember saying, you know, the only man that is staying together is Queens, right? Every band, they're losing members, but Queens, right? They stay together. And then Operation Mindcrime, just that's the album that sent you guys through the stratosphere. You guys just at that point, you know, for Operation Mindcrime, you guys were headlining at that point, right? Or were you still open?

Speaker 5:
[38:04] No, no, no, we, we only started headlining after the Empire album came out. That was our first headlining tour. 92, I think it was.

Speaker 1:
[38:14] It's crazy to think because Operation Mindcrime was so powerful. It was just one of the greatest.

Speaker 5:
[38:20] Oh, but it, you know, it was our first gold album and actually turned all the other albums that happened to it, you know, Thor, Rage Forward, or An EP in The Warning, those went gold, too, when Mindcrime went gold. Yeah, and then, yeah, that kind of set us, you know, on a path of sales, really. You know, we never were a big arena band. You know, we were a theater band. We played theaters primarily. We had a short experience on the Empire album at late after the album came out, where we tried to play arenas and we played a few of them across America, but it was not easy filling up an arena for us, you know. Never has been. But we're a good, solid theater band, you know. Absolutely.

Speaker 1:
[39:06] Yeah. And up to that point, there wasn't a bad song. Like the EP, all four songs, Night Rider, Blinded, Lady War, Black, everything on The Warning. I mean, everything. You know what? I would say like Child of Fire, probably, you know, not my favorite song on The Warning, but still a great song. And then Rage For Order, there's no bad songs on Rage For Order. Every song on Rage For Order, even Gunna Get Close To You, even the cover. I love that song. Everything is great. And then Operation Mindcrime, everything. The mission, spreading the disease, speak. Even the, you know, the singles, Eyes of a Stranger, I Don't Believe in Love. The vocal performances on those were amazing. And man, and there's no other band out there that's putting out albums where there's no bad songs. And like a good album for me, like a great album is that an album has three great songs and then the rest are just kind of fillers. That's a great album. Like, damn, three good songs. Holy shit. They pulled off three. You guys are just doing like top to bottom. Everything's solid, no fillers. And I'm like, man, they got to crack eventually. They got to crack. I remember before Empire, Chris DeGarment was saying, this album, it's not going to be as dark. The clouds will be cracking. And I remember as a kid, I'm like 1920 going, I don't want to hear that. I don't want to hear that the sun's going to be cracking through. We wanted darkness. Like the kids growing up on the streets of Southern California, we wanted just darkness. So that kind of spooked me a little bit. So I was a little worried about Empire. And I remember the first song I heard off Empire, it was on MTV. They premiered the Empire video. And me and my friends are watching, OK, are they going to start slipping here? And then, boom, Empire hit. And we were just blown away. We were like, oh, my God, another amazing song. Holy shit.

Speaker 10:
[44:13] You know, back in 1990, when we wrote this song, they had just started selling crack cocaine on the streets of this country.

Speaker 1:
[45:53] Everybody was blown away by the song Empire. And then, I mean, I will say, the Empire album, the Resistance, I never got that into it, which was weird because the name of my band was Resistance. It was weird, I'm like, and then the song, I never really got into Resistance. But, I mean, the thin line, I mean, there's like four different vocal parts on that. And then the outro to the thin line is like, it's like some amazing guitar work. But the vocal melodies to the thin line, that's one of my favorite all time songs. The way you change your tone on the low stuff, like, if you dare. Like all that shit, I fucking love that. And then, you wrote the lyrics to that? The thin line? Yes. That's such a great song. And then, anybody listening, that's one of the greatest songs of all time, those verses, the verses, oh my God. By morning, this will all seem like a dream. Oh my God, I love that shit. I love that, I never get tired of that line. And then, you know, obviously, Jet City Woman, great song. You know, so, and then the next album, Promise Land, great production. I like the production, but the only song, the only song that really hit me hard was Someone Else. And that song, I can't, that's one of the greatest songs of all time. Someone Else, you wrote the lyrics to that?

Speaker 5:
[53:11] Yes.

Speaker 1:
[53:12] Oh my God, that's such, me and my band, we cover it. We, in a shitty way, we could never like do it justice, but man, we can't stop playing that one. That, that, that, well, I play that one more by myself, you know, cause you know, it's kind of embarrassing trying to, trying to copy your vocals when the production level is so, I mean, your vocal level is so high on that one.

Speaker 5:
[58:20] Put it in the AI and see what you come up with, you know?

Speaker 1:
[58:23] I'm gonna do that, I'm gonna do that. What I think is probably the best knee slice in the game, it's called a row drag. Super simple, awesome combo. Before we get to the truck, throw a little pass on top of that. You know what I mean?

Speaker 2:
[63:09] So we're gonna get really good at that truck transition.

Speaker 1:
[63:11] How about you get really ninja with the row drag? The knee slice.

Speaker 2:
[63:15] Push him down, butterfly, boom, bam, boom. Here. Here. Here. And then the fishnet, knee to the stomach, load handle, break the frames, boom. Pull this out, grab my forearm, pop, pop.

Speaker 10:
[63:40] That's all the best shit from Twister Sackle and Troll right there in one throw.

Speaker 3:
[63:45] Guys, want to go back and forth a little bit?

Speaker 1:
[63:47] Ready?

Speaker 2:
[63:48] Go.

Speaker 1:
[63:49] So now you got Operation Mindcrime Part 3 coming out. For those of my audience that don't understand what the concept of Operation Mindcrime is, can you give us a brief synopsis?

Speaker 5:
[64:02] Operation Mindcrime 1 and 2 are both concept records, as is Operation Mindcrime 3. But on 1 and 2, the story of the album is told through the eyes of the lead character, Nicky. And there's a couple other characters within the story. Sister Mary, who is a ex-prostitute turned nun, and a shadowy dark figure who seems to be the person kind of pulling the strings and dictating what to do the other characters are doing. And his name is Dr. X. So the first two albums are about Nicky's perspective as to what's happening. And there's manipulation, there's replacement of government officials happening through assassination. There's money laundering, extortion, lots of murder going on. The third album, Dr. X, is about Dr. X's perspective. What was happening on one and two, told through the eyes of Dr. X. So we really get to see who this man is, and what his story is. And because we know his name, but we don't know his story until May 3rd, when it comes out.

Speaker 1:
[65:26] Ha ha ha ha. I heard the single, it's called Power. We'll play it, I'll have my producer put it on. But man, that's like I said earlier, your voice sounds amazing on it. It's incredible how you've kept your voice together. It really is. Now, you parted ways with Queensryche in like 2008, 2007?

Speaker 5:
[65:50] 12, 2012.

Speaker 1:
[65:52] 2012. They went on, you guys had a lawsuit. The band members like Michael Wilton, Eddie Jackson, Scott Rockenfield, they kept the name Queensryche. And then you...

Speaker 5:
[66:07] No, no, no. They bought the name from me.

Speaker 1:
[66:11] Oh, shit. OK. OK.

Speaker 5:
[66:13] I sold it to them. Yeah.

Speaker 1:
[66:14] Oh, OK. I hope you got a lot of money for it.

Speaker 5:
[66:17] Oh, I did.

Speaker 1:
[66:20] So they were...

Speaker 5:
[66:22] They needed the name. They needed the name more than I did. I could sell tickets on my own with my own name, and they couldn't, you know. So it benefited both of us in both parties, I think. You know, they got the name and they can continue to make a living. And I keep dropping my phone. And I went on to do what I do. And so it's worked out really well.

Speaker 1:
[66:46] That's amazing, man. And they replaced you with Todd Latorre. He was in... I think he even played for Crimson Glory, too. He has a real high voice. And he's... I personally don't know one song with Todd Latorre. I have... He's a great vocalist. I hear he's a great drummer, too. I'm sure he's a really nice guy. But I have zero interest in even giving it a chance. There might be some great songs on those albums, but I haven't even... Like, maybe I listen to one song. Not really into it. Queen's Rite is Geoff Tate. Your voice, that's all I want to hear. I don't need to hear anybody else. But I know everyone asks you, is there a chance of a reunion? And I know that I've heard it enough where it's not going to happen. And or, you know, never say never, I guess. But there was at one point where a lot of money was offered for you guys to reunite and, you know, you guys didn't want to do it. But there's a band called Three Days Grace. This is crazy. This is the crazy bullshit coming out of my mouth. But there's a band called Three Days Grace. They put out three or four albums with their original singer, had some hits, and then the original singer left. And then they got, they replaced them. And then that new singer did like three or four albums. And then now they brought back the original singer, but they kept the new singer. So they're both on stage. And when the original singer is singing, when they're doing an original song, the new singer plays guitar and sings back up, and it sounds great. I saw them live. And then when they're doing a newer song, the original singer plays guitar and sings back up. And they love it, because they love taking breaks. And it's, I never even, I mean, I guess Sammy Hingor and David Lee Roth kind of sort of did that for a second, but man, I saw them live, Three Days Grace, and it sounded so great, man, you know. Would that ever be the sub, or like, there could be different versions of Queen's Right. Let's say Scott Rockenfield is like, he's just not coming back. Chris DiGarmo not coming back. So there's no Scott Rockenfield, there's no Chris DiGarmo, but you, Eddie and Michael want to do something. You could get Todd Latour on drums and then he could sing background for you, which would be, he would have that down, right? And then have Kieran Robertson, your present guitarist, take Chris DiGarmo's spot. Would that be something you would do if they offered you 10 million? No.

Speaker 5:
[69:31] No, no, thank you.

Speaker 1:
[69:34] Okay, okay. I just, I was just thinking of that last night. Like, wow, can you imagine that Todd playing drums, backing vocals, Kieran playing guitar? Never gonna happen.

Speaker 5:
[69:45] Well, no, that's not gonna happen. No, it's.

Speaker 1:
[69:48] And if you guys, if, it's not gonna happen, but if you guys did a full-on reunion, imagine how huge that would be. You guys be playing SoFi Arena, Tiger Stadium. It would be huge. In my opinion, it would be huge.

Speaker 5:
[70:03] Yeah, but there's, you know, there isn't a price for happiness. You know, it's a delicate thing, it's, you know, Queenswreck was a very productive band for 30 years. That is amazing. And we did some really amazing records, fantastic work. And I'm very proud of that, you know, but it was definitely time to end it all, you know, and make it go away. And I wish it could have like ended, you know, with more grace and more elegance. It's really too bad that it ended up going the way it went. But in the end, you know, I think both parties are, you know, were served, you know, I got the money, which was important to me, and they got the name, which was vastly needed for them, you know, and it worked out great.

Speaker 1:
[71:00] And you went to a show with their version of Queenswreck. You showed up like unannounced, you were like in the front row, right? There's something like that?

Speaker 5:
[71:09] Oh, yeah, yeah. Copenhagen last year, I had a day off and somebody in my band said, you know, I think Queenswreck is playing. You guys want to go? And so we did. We just went, showed up and, you know, went to the front row and hung out on the barricade and watched them play for a while. It was a weird, very surreal, strange situation.

Speaker 1:
[71:31] Yeah, I can only imagine. He's like doing you.

Speaker 5:
[71:33] It was just weird hearing somebody, you know, sing your music, you know, and play your stuff. And that's like the first time I'd ever seen them, you know, actually. When I wasn't there, you know, I was standing on stage with them, you know, it was a very weird experience, but I'm glad I did. It was it was interesting to see, you know.

Speaker 1:
[71:56] Wow, I can only imagine. Did you, did Michael Wilton or Eddie Jackson, like, wave and say hi or anything, or did they kind of go?

Speaker 5:
[72:05] Oh, no, no, they wouldn't look me in the face.

Speaker 1:
[72:07] Really?

Speaker 5:
[72:08] Wow. Yeah, I know. Weird, huh? Wow.

Speaker 1:
[72:11] That is weird. That is weird.

Speaker 5:
[72:13] Yeah, very strange. But, you know, I spent most of the night signing autographs and taking photos with people. Yeah, it was kind of weird because I'm standing on the barricade, you know, and there's somebody standing next to me and we're doing a photo and, you know, Queenswreck is playing in the background.

Speaker 1:
[72:33] Yeah, that's crazy, man.

Speaker 5:
[72:35] Photo bombing. They're photo bombing me.

Speaker 1:
[72:39] Chris DiGarmo hasn't reached out to you in a long time, correct? Like, you guys, you guys don't really...

Speaker 5:
[72:45] Vice versa. I haven't reached out to him either. I didn't talk probably a decade ago. Maybe we talked.

Speaker 1:
[72:52] You guys don't have any bad blood. You just like went your separate ways, right?

Speaker 5:
[72:56] Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. He chose a different life, you know, he consciously chose that and went off to fly airplanes and, you know, be a family guy, you know, and that was the choice he took, you know. Not my cup of tea, you know, but definitely something that was important for him. He hasn't really played in it. He doesn't, hasn't followed a musical life at all, you know, completely walked away from it all.

Speaker 1:
[73:25] I thought I heard him kind of briefly collaborating with Jerry Cantrell or something like that, or like Chris Cornell's daughter is a singer. He did something.

Speaker 5:
[73:37] I don't know. If that happened, it was, you know, 10, 12 years ago.

Speaker 1:
[73:41] Yeah.

Speaker 5:
[73:42] Or later, more, I guess. Because I think Chris left the band, I'm thinking sometime in 97, 98. So that's a long time ago, isn't it?

Speaker 1:
[73:55] Yeah, that's a long time ago. And you guys were from Seattle way before the grunge movement. Did you guys notice it while in Seattle? Were you guys just touring all over the place? You didn't really pay attention to the grunge scene at all. Did you guys see it coming?

Speaker 5:
[74:13] Well, yeah. When we started out, there wasn't a club scene, you know, where you could play original music. The clubs wouldn't let you do that. You had to play cover tunes, you know. And so we went a whole different route, and we made our own record, started our own record company, ended up getting signed by EMI, and a big record deal, and we took off from there, and we just were hardly ever in Seattle again, you know. And so it really wasn't something that we were witnessing these other bands coming up. Although Soundgarden opened up for us, briefly, for a time. We did a festival run together. But besides that, and we were friends with some of the guys in Alice in Chains, you know, kind of somewhere around the 2000s as well. But no, we were kind of all doing, you know, we were away, you know, traveling the world and playing shows and doing our thing. And so we didn't participate in the club scene, you know, that was going on in the late 90s.

Speaker 1:
[75:17] And you're about to embark on a pretty extensive tour in Europe, right? And the United States, is that coming up soon?

Speaker 5:
[75:28] I'm on it. Yeah, I started in January. Right now I'm in Istanbul today. We have a show in a couple hours.

Speaker 1:
[75:36] And is Kieran out there? He's not doing these European shows?

Speaker 5:
[75:39] No, he's in America right now.

Speaker 1:
[75:40] Okay, is he going to eventually join you, right?

Speaker 5:
[75:44] Yeah, when we hit the States in a couple weeks, he's going to be back on guitar. Oh, listen, they're singing from the Minaret. Can you hear that?

Speaker 1:
[75:56] No, I can't hear it.

Speaker 5:
[75:59] Oh, it's amazing. It's amazing. Check it out. It's a prayer time.

Speaker 1:
[76:15] Oh, yeah, it's that, yeah, I've been to Istanbul twice, both on connection, connection flights to Kazakhstan.

Speaker 5:
[76:26] Oh, okay, really?

Speaker 1:
[76:28] Yeah.

Speaker 5:
[76:29] It's a beautiful city, absolutely gorgeous.

Speaker 1:
[76:31] So you pretty much play every night?

Speaker 5:
[76:36] Pretty much, yeah. I try to play at least six nights a week. Yeah, that's my schedule.

Speaker 1:
[76:41] Man, that's a lot.

Speaker 5:
[76:42] Wow, that's that's not it's not hard. No.

Speaker 1:
[76:48] What? What? What's your set?

Speaker 5:
[76:51] I have to actually, I have to actually shorten my set, because my fans can't take it. They can't take two and a half hours of metal. They just burn out. It's crazy.

Speaker 1:
[77:03] But you want to keep going.

Speaker 5:
[77:05] I could go, I could go seven. You know, I just recently, well, my wife made me stop touring so much in a row, but I was doing like 21 dates in a row, taking one or two days off, you know, going back out. And she said, dad, that's a little much. You should probably, you know, slow down a little bit, you know. So we found a good balance six nights a week is a good, feels right, you know.

Speaker 1:
[77:31] That's incredible, man. What, what are you going on pretty soon?

Speaker 5:
[77:36] We go on at 10. It's, it's quarter to eight right now.

Speaker 1:
[77:39] Okay. Okay, man. Wow. That's incredible. Like you're toured so much and you're playing so much and, and your voice.

Speaker 5:
[77:47] Yeah. 60, 68 countries so far. Yeah.

Speaker 1:
[77:51] That's insane, man. And you're just, you're just going to tour throughout the rest of the year. When are you coming to the, when are you coming to LA? Do you know?

Speaker 5:
[78:00] Well, we're coming to LA for the album release. It's happening.

Speaker 1:
[78:04] Yeah.

Speaker 10:
[78:04] Yeah. Yeah.

Speaker 5:
[78:04] Yeah.

Speaker 1:
[78:05] I'll be there for sure.

Speaker 5:
[78:05] And then I can't actually remember that. What is it? October, November. That's right. Right around there will be West coast, Southern West coast.

Speaker 1:
[78:16] Awesome, man. I can't, I saw you guys at the, at the, you know, that outdoor rainbow show on sunset.

Speaker 5:
[78:22] Oh yeah. A couple of years ago. Yeah.

Speaker 1:
[78:24] Yeah.

Speaker 5:
[78:25] That was years ago, actually. Four years ago.

Speaker 1:
[78:27] Like two, three years ago. Maybe three, two or three. Lizzy Borden played, I'm a big Lizzy Borden fan. Another operatic high singer. I love him. All right, Geoff, I know you, you got to get ready for your gig.

Speaker 5:
[78:46] That was my signal right there. Prayer time, you know?

Speaker 1:
[78:49] I appreciate you taking the time. I will see you at the record release party in LA, April 21st at the Viper Room. I'll be there. How could my fans reach you?

Speaker 5:
[79:03] Reach me?

Speaker 1:
[79:04] Yeah. Like is, how do they?

Speaker 5:
[79:06] I have an unlisted number, Eddie. No, you mean like, I have Geoff tate.com. I have Geoff Tate from Facebook. I got Instagram. I'm on all those things. TikTok even.

Speaker 1:
[79:18] Okay. Awesome, man. Well, you have a great show tonight. Thank you very much and I'll see you soon. All right.

Speaker 5:
[79:25] Thanks for the interview, Eddie. Appreciate it, man. Take care. I love your T-shirt, by the way.

Speaker 1:
[79:30] I have one for you at the show.

Speaker 5:
[79:33] All right. Will you show me some Jiu-Jitsu moves? That's what I really want to know.

Speaker 1:
[79:37] Oh, man. I'll give you three private lessons for the forever, for the rest of your life. And I'm not even playing. I'm not even playing, man. I will be more than happy to teach you some Jiu-Jitsu.

Speaker 5:
[79:52] I would love to learn. Yeah. Thanks again, man. Take care.

Speaker 1:
[79:55] We'll set it up with Kieran.

Speaker 5:
[79:57] Okay. Take care, man.

Speaker 1:
[79:59] Thank you, dude. See ya. The Jiu-Jitsu dojo is the ultimate training ground for life. Jiu-Jitsu will accelerate the evolution of your being, your consciousness, your soul. Through this amazing art, you will prove to yourself that you can master anything you set your mind to.

Speaker 8:
[80:24] Happy birthday, Eddie Bravo. I leave for Brazil tomorrow.

Speaker 1:
[80:29] Are you the Fuel Factor guy?

Speaker 2:
[80:32] I'm like six pounds over.

Speaker 8:
[80:34] Time to sweat it out. Just imagine someone that has no idea how different your game is.

Speaker 6:
[80:49] I'll tell you what this weekend was, man. It was a culmination point, where all your hard work comes to like one great moment in time. You showed that you're a fucking champion, guy who goes against convention. You created your own shit and figured interesting ways to get around problems in jujitsu. And shows you that great things are possible if you work hard, if you dedicate yourself, and you use your creativity, and you push through, your own human potential just goes up.

Speaker 1:
[81:18] My 10th Planet Association has grown rapidly to over 70 academies worldwide, and their curriculums are all synced to 10th Planet headquarters located in downtown Los Angeles.

Speaker 2:
[81:32] I'm Eddie Bravo.

Speaker 1:
[81:33] I hope to see you on the mats.