In a recent interview with Southeast Wreck Metal, former Queensrÿche frontman Geoff Tate recalled the bottle-throwing incident while opening for Metallica in 1988 in Finland.
“[Queensrÿche guitarist Michael Wilton] did a really interesting thing [at that show],” he reminisced. “I applaud him for his courage, really. But it was a giant bottle of vodka that came flying up on stage, and it hit the neck of his guitar as he was playing it and it shattered all the strings. So the guitar just made this horrible sound.”
Wilton was able to finish the show even after being thrown a bottle. “And so he was kind of standing there for a second, and he just grabbed another guitar and he finished the solo that he was playing. That was amazing. He missed like — I don’t know — five or six notes, but he got back on it and played the whole solo through. And because he did that, the audience just went, ‘Yes!’ It was pretty amazing that he did that.”
He then added, “Metallica had a huge presence in Finland at that time. And, yeah, we were the opening act. So a lot of people were just waiting for us to get off the stage. But we made them listen.”
While the show didn’t end well for the band, this didn’t mean the two bands became enemies. In fact, they had a better crowd reaction on their 1991 tour with Metallica, along with Faith No More and Soundgarden.
“I remember that was a very good day. We played very well, had great crowd reception, every band was just on fire that played, and there was a great feeling in the audience. It was heavy music, but it wasn’t like a violent sort of atmosphere – it was chill, really chill,” Tate told Let There Be Talk.
The singer added, “I was very familiar with Metallica by that time, and it was just great to hear them just tearing it up in that venue at Day at the Green as we were leaving. ‘Go for it, guys.’ They were having a good show too.”
Tate will start the ‘Operation: Mindcrime – The Final Chapter’ tour this year on March 18 in Tucson. He will perform the full ‘Operation: Mindcrime’ album for the last time.
