Former Queensrÿche singer Geoff Tate recently opened up about the legendary, yet ultimately abandoned, heavy metal supergroup known as The Three Tremors. The proposed project was originally slated to feature an all-star vocal lineup consisting of Geoff Tate, Iron Maiden frontman Bruce Dickinson, and Judas Priest vocalist Rob Halford.
In a new interview with Ruben Theodor Kovalsky of the Czech Republic’s Spark magazine, Geoff Tate was asked how far the collaboration went before it was permanently shelved. According to the vocalist, the project barely made it past the conceptual stage.
“Not far at all. I don’t know what was happening in Bruce‘s mind at the time, or Rob, what was going on with him,” Geoff explained. “But, yeah, from my perspective, it didn’t progress very far at all. We were all busy doing different things, and it was impossible to get us all in one place.”
The idea for The Three Tremors was first born out of a shared tour featuring Queensrÿche, Iron Maiden, and Rob Halford‘s solo band. In a previous 2018 interview, Geoff Tate recalled that the concept was jokingly pitched over late-night drinks by Iron Maiden manager Rod Smallwood. Inspired by a conversation with a waiter about The Three Tenors playing over a restaurant’s stereo, Rod Smallwood suggested the heavy metal equivalent. The musicians toasted the idea, but no formal plans were ever made.
“As far as I remember, the three of us were all touring together at the time: Queensrÿche, Iron Maiden and Rob Halford‘s solo project. And we were all at dinner one night, and Rod Smallwood, the manager of Iron Maiden, stood up after… now, this is many rounds of drinks by this time — we’re past dessert-menu time. He stands up and he goes, ‘I think that we should have a band of Bruce and Geoff and Rob and we should call it The Three Tremors. What do you think?’ And this was based upon his previous conversation with the waiter who told him that the album that we were listening to on the stereo system at the Italian restaurant was The Three Tenors opera group. So I thought, and everyone around me thought, that he was sort of making fun of the situation. Anyway, in just good-nature tour fashion, we all stood up and toasted the idea and then we drank more rounds. And that’s as far as it ever got, as far as I remember,” Tate told “Talking Metal” podcast at the time.
Despite the lack of recorded material, Geoff noted the irony of constantly being asked about a nonexistent album. However, he remains flattered that the other musicians respected his work. He recalled Bruce Dickinson being a massive fan of the classic Queensrÿche album Operation: Mindcrime, and remembered the excitement of his former bandmate, bassist Eddie Jackson, upon seeing Iron Maiden bassist Steve Harris wearing a Queensrÿche tour shirt.
“And I remember Eddie Jackson, bass player, coming into some place we were — I can’t remember where we were at the time — but he had a magazine in his hand and there was a picture of Steve Harris, the bass player of Iron Maiden, and Steve was wearing a Queensrÿche tour t-shirt. And Eddie was all happy about that, because he was a fan of Steve Harris‘s work, so he was very happy about that,” he said at the time.
Bruce Dickinson has previously shared his own detailed perspective on the failed collaboration. The Iron Maiden singer originally wanted the legendary Ronnie James Dio to fill the third vocal slot. Management pushed back, arguing that Ronnie James Dio was “too old,” and suggested Geoff Tate instead. While a meeting did take place, Bruce Dickinson ultimately decided the dynamic simply wasn’t going to work.
“I was, like, ‘I am not gonna do this without Ronnie,'” Bruce recalled at the time while speaking on “Trunk Nation With Eddie Trunk“. “And Rod was, like, ‘I don’t wanna use Ronnie. He’s too old.’ I said, ‘What do you mean too old? Are you kidding me?’ I said, ‘He’s a legend.’ He said, ‘No. We should use Geoff Tate.’ And then we had a meeting with Geoff Tate, and then I said, ‘No. It’s not gonna work.’ And so that was that.”
The project, which was temporarily renamed Trinity to avoid potential lawsuits, drew massive interest from concert promoters eager to cash in on the novelty of the lineup. However, Bruce Dickinson insisted that the music needed to be legitimate rather than a simple cash grab.
“I could see the money in their eyes, thinking, ‘Oh, this would be great. We could sell this every which way all over the place as a package,'” Dickinson said. “And I went, ‘Yeah, you could, but what are we actually gonna do? There’s gonna be three of us on stage. What are we gonna do that’s actually different that’s really cool?'”
He attempted to write material specifically structured to highlight three distinct voices, rather than just trading standard verses. This complex writing process birthed the track “Tyranny Of Souls“, which would later become the title track of his 2005 solo album, Tyranny Of Souls. He even recorded a demo where he performed vocal impressions of Geoff Tate and Rob Halford to map out the choir-like choruses.
Ultimately, the logistical challenge of writing a full album tailored for three distinct lead vocalists proved to be too massive an undertaking. Facing a tight three-week window to collaborate, and with Rob Halford recording his album Crucible while Geoff Tate worked on new Queensrÿche material, the supergroup was officially scrapped.
