In a brand new interview with The Cosmick View, former QUEENSRŸCHE singer Geoff Tate spoke about the fact that making a living as a songwriter and performer has become increasingly challenging in today's climate, especially for younger rock artists. "The game has changed radically; it doesn't even resemble anything like it was when I started out," he said. "The rules are all different, if there are any rules, really. [Laughs] "I would say as far as a genre of music, rock is not the music of the times — definitely not worldwide," he continued. "It has pockets of popularity and I for one am solidly entrenched in rock music and I make a nice living touring and releasing albums to my market and I still tour; this tour was 26 countries. You know, that's pretty respectable. I like that. It works for me. But as far as many bands and artists making a living doing that, I don't know. It's really tough for a new band to get an audience, and that's what you need in order to survive in this business — is an audience of people that are willing to support your art, buy your records or buy the tickets to see you perform. And without that, a young artist doesn't have anything other than their music. So the challenge is getting that audience. "It used to be, when we started out, that you would go out on tour with the headliner band and they were kind enough to share their audience with you, you know. And if you were good at what you did their audience would accept you and maybe be interested in what you had to say and you'd start building from there. But nowadays, there's just so much competition and there's so many bands and artists that want to say something and tour around. How do they get access to an established artist audience? It's near impossible for everybody to do it. "So, I for one like to help out artists that I can and have certain artists that I enjoy and I like, I like what they're doing, I like them as people," Geoff added. "I try to give them spots on my tour to share my audience with them. I think that's just the way you should do it. That's the way it was when I was starting out and I'll continue that tradition." Geoff has spent the last couple of years celebrating the 30th anniversary of QUEENSRŸCHE's "Operation: Mindcrime" album by performing the LP in its entirety on European and U.S. tours. In April 2014, Tate and QUEENSRŸCHE announced that a settlement had been reached after a nearly two-year legal battle where the singer sued over the rights to the QUEENSRŸCHE name after being fired in 2012. Original QUEENSRŸCHE members Michael Wilton (guitar), Scott Rockenfield (drums) and Eddie Jackson (bass) responded with a countersuit. The settlement included an agreement that Wilton, Rockenfield and Jackson would continue as QUEENSRŸCHE, while Tate would have the sole right to perform the albums "Operation: Mindcrime" and "Operation: Mindcrime II" in their entirety live. Tate has been replaced in QUEENSRŸCHE by former CRIMSON GLORY singer Todd La Torre. Tate will perform the QUEENSRŸCHE albums "Rage For Order" and "Empire" in their entirety on the "Empire 30th Anniversary Tour" in 2020.
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