“Roads To Madness: The Touring History Of Queensrÿche (1981-1997)” is now available, and can be purchased directly through the publisher, NW Metalworx Music, at this location.
An oversized coffee-table book featuring almost 600 full-color pages of detail on all the concerts played by QUEENSRŸCHE‘s original lineup, “Roads To Madness: The Touring History Of Queensrÿche (1981-1997)” includes a foreword by Jeff Wagner, the author of “Destination Onward: The Story Of Fates Warning”. Three versions are available for purchase: a limited-edition hardcover, a standard paperback and a high-resolution .pdf.
Here is the book’s description: “Roads To Madness: The Touring History Of Queensrÿche (1981-1997)” contains setlists, live photos, stage banter, historical essays, attendee anecdotes, musician commentary, concert flyers, ticket stubs and backstage passes compiled over the course of the band’s first 16 years. Relive concert moments from your past or envision what it was like to be in the audience during QUEENSRŸCHE‘s most celebrated period in the 1980s and 1990s.
Join band historians Brian J. Heaton and Brian L. Naron as they describe QUEENSRŸCHE‘s beginnings as an opening act for heavy metal titans such as DIO, IRON MAIDEN, AC/DC and METALLICA. Find out how QUEENSRŸCHE blossomed into the creative force that wrote, recorded and toured in support of the legendary concept album “Operation: Mindcrime”. Experience the band’s road dog mentality as they hit stardom with “Empire” and the massive hit single “Silent Lucidity”, And, once QUEENSRŸCHE grabbed the brass ring, learn how the band navigated that fame as new frontiers appeared on the musical landscape.
Wagner called the book “a celebration of QUEENSRŸCHE‘s commitment to their craft and our appreciation of their art.”
A book signing for “Roads To Madness” will be held on June 29, 202, at 6:30 p.m. East Street Records in Seattle, Washington. The authors of the book will be there, and a slate of guests is expected to include many figures from QUEENSRŸCHE‘s past.
In April 2014, Geoff Tate and QUEENSRŸCHE announced that a settlement had been reached after a nearly two-year legal battle where the singer sued over the rights to the QUEENSRŸCHE name after being fired in 2012. Fellow original QUEENSRŸCHE members Michael Wilton (guitar),Scott Rockenfield (drums) and Eddie Jackson (bass) responded with a countersuit. The settlement included an agreement that Wilton, Rockenfield and Jackson would continue as QUEENSRŸCHE, while Tate would have the sole right to perform the albums “Operation: Mindcrime” and “Operation: Mindcrime II” in their entirety live.
Tate‘s replacement, Todd La Torre, has released four albums thus far with QUEENSRŸCHE: 2013’s “Queensrÿche”, 2015’s “Condition Hüman”, 2019’s “The Verdict” and 2022’s “Digital Noise Alliance”.
For the past seven years, drummer Casey Grillo has been filling in for Rockenfield, who stepped away from QUEENSRŸCHE‘s touring activities in early 2017 to spend time with his young son.
In October 2021, Rockenfield filed a lawsuit against the band’s fellow original members Wilton and Jackson, alleging, among other things, breach of contract, breach of fiduciary duty and wrongful discharge. A few months later, Wilton and Jackson filed a countersuit against Rockenfield, accusing him of abandoning his position as a member of the band and misappropriating the group’s assets to his own personal benefit. That case has since apparently been settled. The terms of the settlement have not been disclosed.