Fourteen years after he left Queensryche, Geoff Tate was asked on the Beardo and Weirdo podcast whether anything about the split was misunderstood. His answer was four words. There were no knives.
The rumour he is answering has outlived most of the facts of the case. It held that at a gig in Brazil in April 2012 he assaulted guitarist Michael Wilton and pulled a knife on Scott Rockenfield, then the band's drummer. Tate denied it at the time and denied it again here, in an account transcribed by Blabbermouth.
His explanation for why so much of it stuck is the more interesting part. There was a lawsuit running, he said, and people in lawsuits throw out all kinds of information to influence the case, so all kinds of ridiculous stories were circulating at once.
What he says actually happened is duller, which is his point. The band was incorporated, and what took place was a corporate breakup: rules to follow when a company is dissolved, payoffs owed to the people involved, an end of the business rather than a verdict on anyone's playing. The podcast is hosted by Chris Kael of Five Finger Death Punch with comedian Craig Gass, which is how a fourteen year old backstage rumour comes up again at all.