Original Queensrÿche vocalist Geoff Tate, who recently changed the name of his version of the band to Operation: Mindcrime, is featured in a new interview with The Daily Herald. An excerpt is available below:

Tate was fired by the other members of his long-time band shortly following a backstage altercation between Tate and the other core members of Queensrÿche -- drummer Scott Rockenfield, guitarist Michael Wilton and bassist Eddie Jackson -- at an April 2012 show in Sao Paulo, Brazil.

The group had just fired Tate’s wife, Susan, who was managing the band, and his step-daughter, Miranda, who ran the fan club. According to the Seattle Times, the band tried to negotiate a buyout of the singer, but couldn’t come to an agreement with Tate.

So the group fired Tate, which instigated lawsuits over the dismissal and which party would have rights to the Queensrÿche name.

Today, Tate still can’t understand what his former bandmates were thinking.

“I didn’t see it coming. I didn’t even think it was possible,” Tate said of his firing. “First off, why would you break up a band that is incredibly successful and has been successful for years and years and years, for 30 years? There’s no sense, it’s very difficult, very difficult and becoming even more difficult day by day to operate and to be successful in the record industry. It’s no mystery that it’s hurting badly. And so why would you take this incredible successful entity and break it all apart?

“And why would you fire the main writer? Why would you do that -- and the person who is the face of the band and is the identifying key figure in the success of the group?” he said, referring, of course, to himself. “I don’t mean that to sound egotistical because it’s not. It’s just the truth. Why on earth would you do that? It sounds like career suicide, especially at our ages. We’re all in our 50s. Why would you break apart this successful thing at this point in life? I can see if you had some grand plan that, if you’re in your 20s and you had all this time and all these years ahead of you. But we’re all in the last decade of our working lives. It just sounds like madness to me.”

Click here for the complete interview.

On the very day his Farewell Tour as Queensrÿche began, Tate announced that his current version of Queensrÿche will be forging ahead as Operation: Mindcriime after the tour ends.

Named after Queensrÿche’s epic concept album from 1988, Operation: Mindcrime -- a band consisting of Geoff Tate, Rudy Sarzo (Ozzy Osbourne, Whitesnake), Simon Wright (AC/DC, Dio), Randy Gane (Myth) and Kelly Gray (Queensryche 1998 – 2001, 2012 – present) - will be entering the studio in September to begin recording a trilogy project that Geoff’s been working on for the past two years.

Tate, who has always enjoyed telling stories through music, considers the creation of the forthcoming trilogy one of his biggest and most ambitious works to date.

“I tried to reduce the story and eventually got it down to 37 ideas that needed representing to complete the story,” comments Geoff. “I knew that one record wouldn’t cover it and that it would have to be a trilogy. It’s an exciting project and one we’d like to release the first part of sometime next spring.”

With the evolution of his band, Geoff would like to concentrate on concept and story albums in the years to come. Fans like to call it, “Thinking Man’s Metal” and Geoff plans to continue expanding the musical dimensions of your mind.

“It doesn’t seem that long ago when I first brought the Mindcrime story to the band… they were, initially, against it. Chris DeGarmo was the first one to get on board and, once he did, we were able to move forward with what became one of our greatest achievements as a band.”

With the release Operation: Mindcrime - which won critical and popular acclaim and comparisons to the Who’s Tommy and Pink Floyd’s The Wall - Queensrÿche went on to bring their progressive music to sold-out audiences the world over. With Geoff at the helm, Queensrÿche sold over 20 million albums worldwide and performed in over 46 countries.

That was then, this is now and Geoff Tate is looking forward to what lies ahead with his trilogy project. “It is so refreshing to be able to concentrate on the many stories and ideas that I have been working on with no boundaries or restrictions,” states Tate, further adding, “With the newly-named band, I think fans will continue to enjoy the music we create and perform together and hope they share this new musical journey with us.”