Queensrÿche is one of the few bands that gets decent airplay on Sirius's Hair Nation and Ozzie's Boneyard. Most of the 80's bands end up exclusively on Hair Nation, but a few bands like Crüe, GNR, QR, Scorpions, Skid Row, Tesla, Twisted Sister, Quiet Riot and a few others get rotations on both stations, and that tells me that QR is considered more than just an 80's Hair band by Sirius.
I was never a big fan of QR, Ratt and Tesla, but the more I have listened to them 20+ years later on Sirius, the more I have enjoyed them, especially Tesla.
I think that most of the 80's lyrics consisted of sex, drugs and rock-n-roll, and what made QR stand apart, was that lyrically, IMO, they were above most of the other bands from that era, as they dove into topics such as politics and underground movements and shied away from the stereotypical 80's exclusive sex, drugs and RnR.. Operation Mindcrime and Empire, looking back, are two underrated albums (underrated to me, because at the time, I never really had a use for them, but they are/were great albums and probably deserved more attention from me over the years). I can remember seeing Queensrÿche patches on jean jackets as early as the mid 80's, and there were usually Iron Maiden, Ozzy, W.A.S.P. and Judas Priest patches on the same jacket.
I still think Operation: Mindcrime should be made into a movie; a la The Wall.
Wasn't this made into a Broadway/off Broadway musical production a few years back? I probably wouldn't pay to go see a QR musical, but I would definitely watch it on TV!
The main reason that Mötley Crüe is calling it quits, even though they can still pull 20,000 a show, is that they don't want 1, 2 or 3 members calling themselves Mötley Crüe after a member or two splits, ala QR, and is a shadow of themselves. Not many bands survived that era, and as of a few years back, QR and Tesla would instantly sellout the 2,200 seat Hampton Beach Casino Ballroom. Recently Tom Kiefer and Faster Pussycat just barely sold out a local 400 person capacity nightclub here in Manchester.
I have seen just about every band that had some sort of success in the 80's and into the 90's, but QR was one that I was never able to see, and that was probably because I really didn't like them at the time, heck, if they were to open for Crue, I probably would have stayed in the parking lot, drank and listened to the show, much like I did when Tesla opened for Crüe in 1990, I believe. Today, I think that Modern Day Cowboy is probably in my top 15 songs of all-time.
