Geoff Tate, the original lead singer of Queensrÿche, recently recounted a memorable encounter with Pink Floyd’s David Gilmour during a conversation on Beardo and Weirdo.
Tate was asked whether he had ever crossed paths with someone and gotten so excited that he “fanned out a little too hard.” His answer centered on meeting Gilmour at a Pink Floyd after party following the band’s Earl’s Court performances for A Momentary Lapse of Reason.
“Yeah. With David Gilmour. Pink Floyd. It was the last show of the Earl’s Court performances they did for Momentary Lapse of Reason. I was on the guest list and saw the show. A huge Pink Floyd fan. I was invited to the after show party. I get up to the top of this building where they’re having the after show and it’s just me and Dave. And so there we are, you know, and small talk with David Gilmour, who I’ve listened to my whole life, right? And all I could think of was, ‘Hey, can I bum a smoke?'” Tate said.
He then described how Gilmour responded to the request.
“That’s how he pulls a pack of cigarettes out. He gives me a smoke, lights my smoke, and he goes, ‘It’s been a really long day and a very long show, and it’s so nice to talk to you so briefly, but could you f*ck off?’ Well, cuz he’s British, you know,” Tate added.
Tate was Queensrÿche’s founding vocalist and lyricist. The band’s profile rose with its 1988 concept album Operation: Mindcrime, followed by 1990’s Empire, which included “Silent Lucidity.”
