Focus on Metal podcast -
www.focusonmetal.net - will be publishing part 1 of a two-part podcast interview with Jason Slater later today (approx. 4 p.m. Pacific). In it, he'll discuss his various projects with Queensryche from 2005-2012, and opens up on what went down in the recording of Operation: Mindcrime II.
If you're a fan of the band, the podcasts will be worth listening to.
Oh, and if you like predictions (I know the troll audience I have loves it), my guess is, the reunion with Tate and Rockenfield will be still be happening, along with Mike Stone, and Eddie, and finally Michael. And instead of trotting out Mindcrime (which Tate is doing this year), they'll trot out a two-year 30th Anniversary of Empire tour, where they'll play the record from front to back, in sequence. They've never done that before, and it's probably the only thing that would stir interest in promoters. That reunion of the Mindcrime II-era of the band will be a blip, but doing Empire in its entirety could lead to them playing 850-1,000 seat places again. At least for a couple years.
Edit - and before the "they won't reunite because none of the guys will do it after Tate spit on them" reasons, and all the self-respect bullshit, and how fans will lose respect...forget it. If anyone has been following, the whole band (post-DeGarmo) is all about cash. Cold, hard cash. Nothing less, nothing more. And now that both sides have seen it isn't working financially without the other, if there is a reunion possibility out there that will give them more cash, they will take it. Period.
Anyway, be on the lookout for that podcast interview later today. Folks not familiar with the whole Tateryche era of the band (2003-2012), may learn some things.
p.s. if a reunited Wilton-Jackson-Tate-Rockenfield-Stone did indeed trot out Empire and play it in its entirety on a tour, would you be interested? I admit, at first I was like "absolutely not." But now I find myself reconsidering, since while I have seen all those songs except for one (Hand on Heart is the only one I haven't seen live), I sorta think it would be cool to hear Empire front-to-back. And Stone, by the end, got his shrill tone under control.