GEOFF TATE Vs. QUEENSRŸCHE: Audio Of Preliminary Injunction Hearing Available

The Breakdown Room has uploaded an audio recording of the July 13 preliminary injunction hearing in connection with singer Geoff Tate's lawsuit against his former bandmates in QUEENSRŸCHE over the legal rights to the group's name. You can now stream it in two parts below. Attending the hearing were Tate's attorneys Joshhua Brower, Benjamin Stone and Denver Grant; Geoff's former bandmates were represented by counsel Thomas Osinski.

Part 1:

Part 2:

QUEENSRŸCHE members Michael Wilton (guitar),Scott Rockenfield (drums),Eddie Jackson (bass) and Parker Lundgren (guitar) announced on June 20 that they were parting ways with Geoff Tate and recruiting Todd La Torre of CRIMSON GLORY as his replacement.

Tate and his wife, Susan, QUEENSRŸCHE's former manager, filed a lawsuit against Geoff's ex-bandmates on June 22 in King County Superior Court over whether he should be awarded the QUEENSRŸCHE name after being dismissed from the group in June. Their complaint states Rockenfield, Wilton and Jackson wrongfully fired the singer and are tarnishing the group's brand by attempting to move forward without him.

Wilton, Jackson and Rockenfield defeated Tate's motion for a preliminary injunction during the aforementioned July 13 hearing that would have kept them from touring and operating under the band name until the lawsuit was settled.

If the case goes to trial, the date is set for November 18, 2013.

The new QUEENSRŸCHE lineup is now represented by AGPS Management/Front Line Management Group.

In a press release announcing QUEENSRŸCHE's split with Tate, Rockenfield gave the reason for the singer's exit as "growing creative differences" over the the past few years.

During an appearance on VH1 Classic's "That Metal Show", Tate disputed the drummer's claim, saying, "We've never had any kind of creative differences, or any kind of a situation where we are at odds with each other."

Asked why he thinks the other members of QUEENSRŸCHE fired him from the band after 30 years of working together, Tate said, "I can only speculate that we're in a really tough recession right now all over the world, and I think that when we have economic times like this, it kind of makes people do strange things. That's really the only speculation I can give — that it's a money thing. We have a company together and [now that] they kicked me out, they can split my 25 percent."