Geoff Tate is 67, and he has decided this is the last time he takes "Operation: Mindcrime" out on the road in full.
The ex-QUEENSRŸCHE singer is in the middle of the 2026 leg of "Operation: Mindcrime — The Final Chapter", the tour on which he performs the 1988 concept album in its entirety for the last time. Speaking to Trust In Rock, the YouTube channel run by former "Headbangers Ball" presenter Vanessa Warwick, Tate was blunt about why he is winding it down now.
"'Cause I'm old now," he said, laughing. "Honestly. Yeah, I don't know if I can continue touring like this. It's pretty tough. I don't wanna try to go out there and play it if I'm hobbling around and ailing. I don't wanna get in that position. So, while I feel strong, while I feel good, it's a good time to perform it and perform it well."
Asked what it actually costs him to deliver the whole record night after night, he described the aftermath rather than the show.
"It's how you feel the next day after you perform it. You feel shell-shocked. It's quite a physical album. I mean, it's only an hour long, really, but there's a lot going on in that hour that kind of emotionally takes you on a bit of a rollercoaster ride, as a performer, I think, and I'm sure from the audience's standpoint as well. But for me, yeah, it's a workout — mentally, physically. I kind of feel emotionally drained after every concert."
Nearly forty years on, the record's reach still catches him off guard. "I didn't think at the time past maybe five years, not to imagine 40 years later performing the songs," he said. "Even performing — I didn't think I was gonna live that long. But right now I feel maybe I'll make it to 100."
Warwick put it to him that the album's themes — political manipulation, disillusionment, extremism — read as current. Tate agreed, and took no comfort in it: "I think it's one of those stories that just keeps happening. Nothing really changes in the world. In fact, we can see it now. We have so much information to sort through, and every day there's exactly the things you were describing there going on every day. It just never ends. So I think the story seems really relevant because it's a never-ending story."
Tate recently released "Operation: Mindcrime III", the closing chapter, issued under his own name rather than the QUEENSRŸCHE banner. DISTURBED bassist John Moyer produced it — their fourth album together since 2015's "The Key" — and it marks the recording debut of guitarist Kieran Robertson, who moved over from Glasgow nearly a decade ago to join Tate's band and co-wrote much of the material. This time the story is told from Dr. X's point of view rather than Nikki's.
The 2014 settlement that ended Tate's legal war with QUEENSRŸCHE left the band name with Michael Wilton, Scott Rockenfield and Eddie Jackson, and gave Tate the sole right to perform "Operation: Mindcrime" and its sequel in full. He is now handing that right back to the archive.