About Geoff Tate
Geoff Tate January 14, 1959; he later changed his first name to Geoffery or Geoffrey) is an American singer and songwriter. He rose to fame with the progressive metal band Queensrÿche, who had commercial success with their 1988 album Operation: Mindcrime and 1990 album Empire. Tate is ranked fourteenth on Hit Parader's list of the 100 Greatest Metal Vocalists of All Time. He was voted No. 2 on That Metal Show's top 5 hard rock vocalists of the 1980s. In 2012, he won the Vegas Rocks! Magazine Music Award for "Voice in Progressive Heavy Metal". In 2015, he placed ninth on OC Weekly's list of the 10 Best High-Pitched Metal Singers. After his farewell tour as Queensrÿche, he renamed his band Operation: Mindcrime, after the Queensrÿche album of the same name.
Tate was born in Stuttgart, which was then part of West Germany, to American parents. His mother's side of the family is from New Orleans. Shortly after his birth, his family relocated to Tacoma, Washington. Tate had an interest in music from an early age. He was especially interested in symphonic works. Tate wanted to be a football player until he suffered a knee injury. He enrolled in Tacoma Community College after graduating from high school in 1977, but dropped out after a year.
Tate first started out in the local cover band Tyrant, with Adam Bomb and future Culprit/TKO member Scott Earl. At the time, Tate was using the name "Jeff Waterfall" and performing Van Halen and Rainbow covers. After losing a local "Battle of the Bands" to a band that would later change its name to Fifth Angel, Tyrant split up and Tate moved on to progressive band Babylon. While Tate was in Babylon, he was asked to sing with the cover band The Mob at a local rock festival. After Babylon broke up, Tate performed a few shows with The Mob, but left because he was not interested in performing heavy metal cover songs. Tate then joined the progressive metal band Myth as lead vocalist and keyboardist. Other band members of Myth included Kelly Gray, who was later one of the replacements for Queensrÿche guitarist Chris DeGarmo, and Randy Gane, both of whom joined Tate's version of Queensrÿche in 2012.
The Mob again called on Tate in 1981, this time to record a demo tape, which he accepted, convincing his bandmates in Myth that getting professional recording experience would benefit all of them in the future. Meanwhile, The Mob already had a set of songs, but one song was still left without lyrics. Tate was asked to write lyrics to this song, which would become the song "The Lady Wore Black", Tate's first penned song with the band. The demo tape was widely circulated, and was released as an EP in 1982 on the 206 Records label. Around this time, the name The Mob was changed to Queensrÿche, and Tate left Myth to become Queensrÿche's permanent lead singer. Myth went on to record the album Arabia after Tate had left.
Queensrÿche was signed to EMI in the summer of 1983, with a contract spanning 15 years and encompassing seven albums. EMI re-released the EP, Queensrÿche, to moderate success, peaking at No. 81 on the Billboard charts. With Queensrÿche, Tate had great successes, especially with the concept album Operation: Mindcrime, which was released in 1988, and 1990's Empire. The band has sold over 20 million albums worldwide.
On June 20, 2012, it was announced that Queensrÿche had fired Tate, replacing him with Crimson Glory vocalist Todd La Torre. Soon after, Tate and his wife Susan filed a lawsuit in a Washington court, saying that he was wrongfully terminated from the group. They also filed a preliminary injunction in an attempt to prevent either side from using the band's name and likeness until the lawsuit was settled, but this was denied by a judge who decided that both parties could use the name Queensrÿche until a settlement or a court verdict determined who would get the name. It was revealed to the public on April 28, 2014, that Rockenfield, Wilton and Jackson were given the exclusive rights to the Queensrÿche trademark and that Tate received the rights to Operation: Mindcrime.
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