Queensryche Perform Show Without Guitarist Parker Lundgren
In yet another twist to the developing Queensryche membership drama, the band performed a show this past Friday — their first since the pandemic began last spring — without guitarist Parker Lundgren. Mike Stone, who played with Queensryche from 2003 to 2008 and performed on the album Tribe, took his place.
Under normal circumstances Lundgren’s absence might not be headline worthy; Blabbermouth notes that he previously sat out some shows in 2018 when Queensryche were on tour with Scorpions. But Lundgren, who joined in 2009, was one of the members selectively cropped out of a band photo by estranged drummer Scott Rockenfield (who also did not perform with the band last Friday, and hasn’t since 2017) on his recently launched website, Queensryche2021.com.
Are these two things related? Hard to say.
It’s worth noting that vocalist Todd La Torre, who was also cropped out of the photo on Rockenfield’s website, DID perform with Queensryche at the show on Friday, which took place at the Shoshone-Bannock Casino in Fort Hall, ID. As did original Queensryche members Michael Wilton (guitar) and Eddie Jackson (bass), who Rockenfield deemed important enough to include on his website. All of that would suggest that Rockenfield is acting on his own with regards to the website and doesn’t have Wilton and Jackson’s backing, and that any beef with La Torre is Rockenfield’s alone. Which in turn would suggest that perhaps Lundgren’s absence is unrelated to all of this. But it certainly raises an eyebrow. And all of that is, of course, conjecture.
Rockenfield had been absent from Queensryche since going on paternity leave in 2017 but he reappeared with a cryptic message earlier this year and then, eventually, the new website. La Torre said in a recent interview that “I have no idea what he’s doing,” citing Rockenfield’s lack of communication with both fans and his own band members during the long leave of absence. Only Rockenfield has promoted the new website, while all of the band’s official channels have made no mention of it.
Things got extra weird last week when La Torre launched an eBay auction of drum sticks that Rockenfield used for the recording of the band’s 2013 self-titled album. Rockenfield then posted a message on Facebook chastising an unnamed “employee/hired hand/sub contractor” for lacking “respect and gratitude.”
Former Queensryche vocalist Geoff Tate, who split from the band in 2012, said in a 2019 interview that he believed Rockenfield and the band were embroiled in a lawsuit, then in 2020 he said the drummer has “a lot of medical problems.” There has been no confirmation of either of those assertions, although it’s looking more and more like at least the first one is true.
Queensryche have several shows booked this coming summer, mostly at other casinos, fairs and festivals, with the next arriving on July 2.
A representative for Queensryche at the band’s label, Century Media, declined to comment to MetalSucks about the Rockenfield’s cropped photo.
