Chad Bowar from HeavyMetal.about.com spoke to QUEENSRŸCHE singer Geoff Tate recently about a number of topics including making their new album Operation: Mindcrime II, the stage show, politics and the changes he's seen in the music industry in the past 25 years the band has been together.

Chad Bowar: Why was the time right to make Operation Mindcrime 2?

Geoff Tate: "I needed a new question for people to ask. (laughs) After the first Mindcrime people kept asking me who killed Mary. For 18 years people have been asking me that. So now that we've written a sequel to it, all people ask is why now? It was a number of things. is that the record is a huge fan favorite. Another is that it was left open ended and set up for a sequel. And finally the elections in this country were very similar to what the times were like when the first Mindcrime was written. I found that to be quite interesting. I couldn't pass up the fact that the character Nikki was put in prison during the administration of George Bush, and when he gets out of prison there's another Bush in power."

Chad Bowar: What's the storyline for this album?

"This record takes place 18 years later. It jumps in and explores the life of Nikki, who was the lead character in the first record. He's been in prison for the last 18 years and was put there for murders that he was accused of. The interesting thing is that he has no memory of killing anyone. He spent the last 18 years remembering little bits and pieces of his life and watching TV and getting angrier and angrier. He's plotting a vent for his anger in the form of revenge toward the man he blames for putting him in jail, Dr. X. The record is a study in revenge, what it does to a person, how it consumes you. It pretty much blankets your long term vision and focuses you on an act that may or may not cause you any sort of relief. That's the thrust of the record, a study in revenge and the psychological battle that happens within one's self when dealing with that."

Chad Bowar: How did you decide on RONNIE JAMES DIO to play Dr. X?

Geoff Tate: "Ronnie is the voice I hear when I think of Dr. X. He's a commanding, authoritative sounding figure. Whenever I think if Dr. X and how I think he would sound I hear Ronnie James Dio's voice. We had worked together and toured together before. We also did a benefit project several years ago called Hear'n Aid. I really enjoyed his energy when working with him. He's a very positive and enthusiastic partner when it comes to working together. When I wrote the song in the record that he's on I immediately called him up and asked him if he'd be interested. He said absolutely, send it my way. I did, and he called a couple days later very excited about it. We set a date and he flew up to San Francisco where we were working on it. He and his wife Wendy came up. My wife Susan is our manager and Ronnie's wife is his manager so they got along famously. So he came in for the day and we tackled the project. He was great to work with, absolutely fantastic. Then the four of us went out to dinner and drank way too much Italian wine."

Chad Bowar: How did you come up with the idea of actors playing roles in the tour of Mindcrime?

Geoff Tate: "It took a lot of planning to make it happen. I think we worked on that stage show for three months planning it and executing it. First we had to find actors and go through the interview process of picking people. We had to film different scenes for the show with new film footage and implement that into a new technology that we hadn't used previously. And finally we had to rehearse the songs. We ended up writing some extra pieces of music, extensions of certain songs on the record, and one new piece that we felt better set the story up and present it better. It was a very good show and we were very happy with it. We're bringing it out again this year in conjunction with the release of Operation Mindcrime II and we're planning on playing both of them back to back together. I was very pleased with the reception from the fans. It was interesting to go back in time as a musician and relearn stuff and wrap your head around where you've been. We've done a lot of changing and experimenting with our music since then. It was interesting to revisit that and figure out what our thinking was at the time. It actually helped quite a bit to prepare us for the new record. It also helped prepare the fans for the new record."

Chad Bowar: Any chance of seeing it on DVD?

Geoff Tate: "Possibly. We haven't filmed anything yet, but it's a good plan to start."

To read the entire interview head to this location.