Geoff Tate

All Music Guide:

Taking the operatic vocal stylings of Judas Priest's Rob Halford and Iron Maiden's Bruce Dickinson to whole new levels, Queensrÿche's Geoff Tate remains one of heavy metal's most talented and technically accomplished singers. Born on January 14, 1959 in Stuttgart, West Germany, Tate and his family relocated to Tacoma, WA soon after. Tate became interested in music at an early age, especially symphonic works (additionally, his family always sang around the house, while his aunt was a talented opera singer). But Tate initially focused on a career in football until a knee injury prevented him from pursuing it any further. Soon after, Tate began to sing in local high school rock bands, including one such group called Tyrant. After attending Tacoma Community College for a year, Tate took a job with the Washington State Search and Rescue Team, a group that was trained to assist in "the recovery of crashed planes and lost people," mainly in the Rocky Mountain region not far from Tacoma. Tate continued to sing with other bands during this time, including such local outfits as Myth and the Mob, the latter of which would become Queensrÿche by the early '80s.

Mixing progressive rock with heavy metal, Queensrÿche built a regional following, and even toured with such national acts as Quiet Riot, Twisted Sister, and Dio, solely on the strength of an independently released, self-titled EP from 1983. Tate and Queensrÿche soon signed on with EMI Records, resulting in such further releases as 1984's The Warning and 1986's Rage for Order. It was also during this time that Tate lent his vocal talents to Ronnie James Dio's Hear N' Aid project, which featured many of the day's top names in heavy metal. The resulting song and album (both titled Stars) helped raise money to fight worldwide starvation. But it wasn't until 1988's sprawling concept album, Operation: Mindcrime, that the group broke through to the mainstream. Touring for over a year (and opening sold-out tours for such big names as Def Leppard and Metallica) led to the album enjoying a long life on the charts, eventually earning platinum certification. Queensrÿche scored an even bigger hit with their next release, Empire, which scored a Top Ten hit single with the ballad "Silent Lucidity."

Tate and Queensrÿche took a much-needed break from recording and touring in the early '90s, during which time musical tastes changed dramatically, thanks to (ironically) several younger bands that also hailed from Queensrÿche's hometown of Seattle. Queensrÿche never scaled the same commercial heights again, but still managed to retain a sizeable and dedicated following with such albums as 1994's Promised Land, 1997's Hear in the Now Frontier, and 1999's Q2K. The early 21st century saw Tate contribute vocals to a cover of the Queen classic "Somebody to Love," for the tribute album Stone Cold Queen: A Tribute, in addition to issuing his very first solo album in 2002, a self-titled affair that featured musical styles usually not previously associated with the Queensrÿche frontman. Tate has also been rumored for some time to be involved in a new group, the Three Tremors, which is to also include the aforementioned vocalists for Iron Maiden and Judas Priest, Bruce Dickinson and Rob Halford. Despite each singer confirming the project in the press, no word has been given as to when an album will surface.

Wikipedia:

Geoff Tate (born Jeffrey Wayne Tate, January 14, 1959, in Stuttgart, West Germany) is an American singer and musician, who rose to fame in the 1980s with the progressive metal band, Queensrÿche. Tate is ranked fourteenth on Hit Parader's list of the 100 Greatest Metal Vocalists of All Time. He was voted #2 on That Metal Show's top 5 metal vocalists of all time. He was also voted the #1 greatest metal singer of all time by ragerecords.net

Career

Shortly after his birth his family relocated to Tacoma, Washington. Tate states that his influences are Rob Halford of Judas Priest and Bruce Dickinson of Iron Maiden. He began his musical career with progressive band Myth (who recorded the album Arabia after Tate had left), on lead vocals and keyboards, along with Kelly Gray (who was later one of the replacements for Queensrÿche guitarist Chris DeGarmo). He joined Queensrÿche (then called The Mob) in 1981. The band already had a full demo of songs, but there was one still left without lyrics, and "The Lady Wore Black" became Geoff's first penned song with the band. In 1983 the band released their self-produced debut EP Queensrÿche.

In 2002, Tate released a solo album on Sanctuary Records.

He is also working on a documentary about subliminal messages in media.

Tate is currently scheduled to score the music to the in production crime movie Fallen Moon.

Geoff has four daughters: Miranda, Sabra, Bella, and Emily. Miranda is also the ex-wife of Queensryche guitarist Parker Lundgren His wife Susan serves as the band's manager. She and Geoff used to be vegans.

Tate is also a noted wine enthusiast, giving several interviews to the magazine Wine Spectator. He also launched his own brand of wine.