Interviews

MR: First of all, thanks for doing this interview. It’s a pleasure to meet you.

Eddie: Sure..no problem.

MR: How’s the tour (with Judas Priest) going so far?

Eddie: So far so good. We’ve been out about a week and we’re just trying to get the feel of things you know.

MR: You were in Detroit last night am I right?

Eddie: Yes that’s right…..we were in Detroit last night. I think this is our only Canadian show with Judas Priest but we will be coming back out to play a good 6 to 8 cities here this coming fall.

MR: How is it playing with Priest? Obviously they must have been an influence when you guys got started.

Eddie: Yeah it’s like one of those scenarios where you just pinch yourself….you know…it’s like are we really touring with these guys?

MR: I’ve seen them 6 times and this will be the seventh and every time they’re just so good and tight.

Eddie: Yeah they’re awesome

MR: I saw them on the Ram it Down tour when they had Dave Holland on drums and they almost cancelled because his father had just died but he did the show and then flew home. You could tell his timing was a bit off but they were still great anyway.

Eddie: Yeah his mind must’ve been elsewhere. I remember seeing them with one of their earlier drummers Les Binks on the Hell Bent For Leather tour

MR: Wow…they never played Toronto until the Screaming For Vengeance tour and they played three songs straight and at the end of that the place just erupted into a frenzy…I’ve been a fan since 1976 when I walked into a record store and heard Sad Wings Of Destiny playing.

Eddie: That was the first record I’d heard from them as well.

MR: So it was like seven years later and I had all their albums and they finally came….it was great!!

Eddie: Obviously touring with these guys is big honour and they were a major influence although you may not hear it in our music. They inspired us on a lot of levels and to be here and watching them play all these songs that we grew up listening to.

MR: Did Queensryche ever play any Priest material in the past?

Eddie: Oh yeah….when we first formed back in 81 or 82, we had been together for about 6 months and decided to play a couple of shows and we were actually opening up with Dissident Aggressor.

MR: Cool song!!

Eddie: Yeah you know them and Iron Maiden, Sabbath….we were doing Falling Off The Edge Of The World, Mob Rules stuff like that……big influence…

MR: You’re probably almost the same age as I am right? You’re 44 I believe?

Eddie: Yup I’m 44

MR: I’ll be 44 in December

Eddie: Yeah and these guys in Priest are like 10 years older and that’s the really impressive thing is that they still have it….

MR: That must be a big boost and inspiration to you guys, especially the discipline that must go along with that.

Eddie: It sure is

MR: Are there any plans for your own tour later this year or next year?

Eddie: Yeah…actually, over the last 6 months or so we’ve been touring in support of our first Operation Mindcrime album and we did that also back in ’90 ’91 on the Empire tour. This time around though we’ve extended the story musically speaking and added some new musical ideas to the whole show and it’s weird because we’re supporting it again. But this time around, it’s a different approach and this fall we’re going out for 6 to 8 weeks to do a bunch of shows and there’s like maybe 6 or so dates that we’re going to do up here in Canada including Victoria B.C, Edmonton, Toronto, Montreal, Halifax to name a few. It’ll be fun

MR: That leads me right into Operation Mindcrime II. Why all of a sudden the decision to do a part II? A lot of die-hard fans have been calling for it a long time and I’ve sensed a little bit of reluctance on the part of the band over the years to kind of go back and relive the past. Do you see this as an extension of the original story and not reliving the past. Does it have anything to do with political climates or whatever…..

Eddie: I think it could be combination of everything that you just said. That album is much bigger now than when it was released and it’s one of those things that it’s just that with every release since then, that’s the mode that we were in and the same goes for that album. It’s not that we’re were against doing any kind of a sequel, it’s just that we weren’t in that mode at all. We’d always hear from the fans like “Are you guys going to so a sequel?” Well….not anytime soon but lately we’ve felt that maybe now it is time. I mean, it was 17 or 18 years ago and it will be interesting to see how the fans will accept this because it’s been that long and to expect it to sound like the first one…..I don’t think we could do that. We’ve been there and done that. So we’re trying to create this epic and perhaps it could be the final chapter to the story. There’s been a lot of pressure, some struggles and some indifferences in just how we want to do this. But at the end of the day, we always seem to reach a decision.

MR: You really want to make sure that you do it right

Eddie: We do want to make sure that we do it right. We’re going to try to put together something that’s very special, at least to us. Whether it connects with the fans, that’s another different story. It’s definitely taken quite a bit of effort and a lot of time.

MR: It’s interesting that in the forums section of our website, often when Queensryche is mentioned, it’s like “Operation Mindcrime….awesome album”. What makes this surprising is that a lot of the readers are still teenagers and early twenty-somethings who were obviously too young (or not even around yet) to experience the album when it first came out.

Eddie: It’s interesting that you bring that up because that album seems to be the one that a lot of the younger fans connect with. I have a 14 year old nephew and when I go to visit my sister, he has that album blasting in his bedroom and it’s like….he’s 14 years old!!

MR: In some ways though, with a band like yourselves, you may not want to be labeled a “classic rock” band. I mean that’s O.K. and there’s nothing wrong with that.

Eddie: That’s just the way it is sometimes

MR: I think that’s there’s a real chance here with Operation Mindcrime II to really come up with something that could really connect with a younger audience because a lot of them like Mindcrime I. Maybe the timing might be just right about now

Eddie: Well yeah…it’s like musically, we’ve explored quite a bit since that release you know and it’s just one of those decisions that we made that it might be time to do a sequel. Like you said, maybe this is the time for it.

MR: It seems that over the last several years that metal has started to come back as it really went underground for a lot of years but the question is though of just how much it will come back.

Eddie: Your right you know as this type of music goes through phases and it kind of resurrects itself and it’s there for a moment then it goes away and then comes back again but at the end of the day, it’s still there. It might not be as popular as it was but it’s still around.

MR: Do you guys have a problem being labeled a metal band. I’ve seen some interviews with Geoff and he seems to get a little defensive about that. I guess there are some negative connotations that go along with that. I’ve always considered you guys more of a progressive hard rock band except maybe for the first two albums that were more metal albums than the rest. I mean you have some really smoking metal tunes but overall I don’t consider Queensryche to be a metal band like say Judas Priest or Iron Maiden or bands like that.

Eddie: Well when we first started, we were on the covers of heavy metal magazines. That is the genre that they placed us in. I don’t have anything against it…it doesn’t bother me because it is what it is. That is where we started and Geoff might obviously think differently about it. Everybody has their own opinions and to think that we’re still a heavy metal band now…well O.K. that’s fine if they want to categorize us as that. Some categorized us as a hard rock band.

MR: An album like Empire, aside from a couple of tracks…

Eddie: It’s a hard rock album

MR: Exactly…I would say that too

Eddie: Operation Mindcrime is more of a heavy metal album.

MR: Definitely…..that album really surprised me because even though the Rage For Order album had a hint of eeriness and darkness to it, Mindcrime has an anger and passion unlike anything I’d heard from you guys before.

Eddie: You know it’s interesting that you bring that up because were right in the middle of management turmoil during that time and there were some unfortunate scenarios that developed back then that we still cringe over but you know it’s in the past and maybe that’s where all that anger came from. Also the aspects of the story and the fact that we’re a heavy metal band all contributed to that. It’s been an interesting career let me tell you and to think that we’ve been doing this since ’82….about 23 years now. Even in my wildest dreams did I think that at this time in my life, I’d still be making music and doing interviews like this….

MR: I mean it’s 2005 and bands like Judas Priest, Iron Maiden and Rush that are all still around. When I was in high school in the 70’s, if someone would’ve told me that in 2005 bands like Judas Priest, Rush and Yes were still around and touring, I wouldn’t have believed them. It’s incredible that the longevity that some of those bands have and it says a lot about the quality of the bands that came out of our era. I don’t think that there are that many newer bands out now, maybe a few, that are going to have that sort of longevity as it seems to be a flash in the pan so to speak with the modern day music industry.

Eddie: You know when we go out on tour and headline ourselves, obviously it’s not the same thing as when you’re opening up for bands you know like Judas Priest, Iron Maiden, Metallica or something like that because to me personally….I’m more of a fan as opposed to just being in band.

MR: You probably never get over that because if you’re a fan…

Eddie: You’re always a fan….and to think that for example, Judas Priest, they’re like 10 or 12 years older than we are and to still see them doing what they do and do it so well. I mean, these guys paved the road for a lot of bands…a lot of big bands….and even some of the newer ones that have come out over the last 4 or 5 years. It’s just incredible….it’s timeless you know, you just sit there and absorb it and listen to it. They played Exciter last night and I haven’t heard that song in a while and I watching and starting to sing along with it…all the drum chops and everything and I can’t believe that I remembered all that. For the longest time, I was a big Alice Cooper fan and a major, major influence and inspiration. I think it was just a matter of the music changing where I just wasn’t as interested anymore or the fact that I just moved on and started exploring other avenues but at the end of the day he still kicks ass.

MR: I saw him a couple of years ago and he really has the whole audience in the palm of his hand and after the first couple of songs, it’s like he’s in charge and everyone is almost afraid of him!!

Eddie: I hadn’t really listened to much Alice Cooper over the years but when we were over in Europe last June, he headlined three or four shows and we happened to be on two of them. I said to the other guys, “We’re leaving late..I wanna see the show!!” So I’m there on the side of the stage…like I said, I haven’t listened to his music in so long and he starts playing all these old classics and I’m remembering all the lyrics and all the drum and bass chops…I’m a fan first and to be on the same stage with a lot of these bands..we’ve been very blessed and fortunate. Who knows how much fuel is left in the old Queensryche tour bus but we’re just doing what we do. Here’s the thing..if there’s people out there that still want to listen to us then we’re going to keep writing. That’s all you can ask for….

MR: I want to talk about Chris DeGarmo….was he approached to be involved with Operation Mindcrime II at all. What’s the story with him? I know he was off doing some of his own stuff and he did some stuff with Jerry Cantrell (Alice In Chains).

Eddie: He’s been chasing blue skies flying Lear Jets. He has a pilots license (captain’s license). That’s pretty impressive you know he went from one extreme to another you know from playing in front of thousands of people to flying over thousands of people. But we keep in contact and he actually contributed to some of the writing for the Tribe album. He came and we started talking and asked him if he wanted to participate and he said “Sure” It was a bit odd at first because he had been away for so long but as soon as we sat there and started writing and recording these songs it was like he’d been on vacation and just came back. I’m a Chris DeGarmo fan….he’s written a lot of great songs. It was kind of nice.

MR: Did he just get disillusioned with the whole music scene?

Eddie: Perhaps…I think it was a combination of a lot of things as I really don’t have the full details. It was just like one day he woke up and said “You know what guys, I don’t think I really want to do this anymore” I think he wanted to spent a lot more time with his family. We still wanted to continue as there was no reason for us to dissolve and stop production so we decided to see if there’s still life after Chris DeGarmo. So far we’ve been fortunate.

MR: I’ve always wondered because not much was said about whether there were any conflicts within the band or whether he just decided not to do it anymore.

Eddie: I don’t know the exact details but perhaps he wanted to explore other things as he’d already accomplished what he wanted to accomplish. He wrote a top 10 single with Silent Lucidity which did very well for us and he’s flying planes now…who knows the complete reasons…….

MR: Speaking of family…..do you have any kids?

Eddie: Yes I have a 4 year old son

MR: I have two boys aged 7 and 9. That really draws and pulls at you even in everyday life without even being a musician, there’s certain things that you just can’t do anymore….sacrifices have to be made.

Eddie: Interesting that you brought that up because we’ve been doing this for years and you know the wives, they understand. If you’ve married the right person and they understand that this is what we do, this is our career and what we enjoy doing that’s one thing but once you start churning out children, it’s a whole different story because now it just makes it that much tougher leaving and missing months of sitting there watching the evolution of your own child….you’re missing out on all of this. Again, the difference is that when you’re a musician and you’re in a band, you’re going to have to sacrifice a lot of family outings because most of the time, you’re going to be gone. That’s just the way it is. We do fly our families out every now and again just to make sure that we’re still around and still together!!

MR: It must be tough because if I go even a day without seeing my kids, it bothers me.

Eddie: My wife took off for two days with her parents a few years back when my son was only two to visit a relative who was ill. When she came back it was like” I don’t ever want to do that again!”…I go…you were only gone for two days….try being gone for 6 to 8 weeks!!

MR: I think that your tour manager wants me to wrap this up so once again, thank you so much for your time…it was great talking to you. Good luck with the rest of the tour and with Operation Mindcrime II.

Eddie: Sure, no problem…

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