The former partnership of Queensr˙che guitarists Chris DeGarmo and Michael Wilton has gotten its due in print, but another pairing within the group hasn't received as much commentary. Maybe it's because percussion and bass, being the backbone of a band, don't grab immediate attention like a singer or guitarists do. Bassist Eddie Jackson has been holding down that end of the fort alongside drummer Scott Rockenfield since the band started, and they do it so seamlessly, people take their rhythmic compatibility for granted.
The taut production on Operation: Mindcrime puts Jackson more center stage than on other Queensr˙che albums. His bass is the record's sinister undertone, its menacing thudding indicating that assassin Nikki and former hooker Sister Mary aren’t destined to run off into the sunset. One of the record's coolest mileposts is the signature riff he plucks during the title track's lyric "Watch the dragon burn," helping fans envision the heroin gurgling through Nikki's veins. The song best references the role that bass plays in the album: determination, darkness and seduction.
Jackson, as he explains in his Q&A below, says that long ago, his personal aspirations as a musician were primarily to record an album and tour, like he'd watched his own idols do. Mindcrime was the springboard to commercial success that enabled Queensr˙che to become a headlining act. After working for its big break for seven years, the mainstream attention was a heady feeling. For Jackson, it was also daunting.
"We all kind of felt the same sort of excitement, but I think individually, I guess some of us dealt with it on a different level," he recalls. "Chris was just head over heels, just flyin' basically, and [singer] Geoff [Tate] and Michael, I'm sure we all had our own different feel of how we were all reacting at the time.
"Don't get me wrong: I was pretty excited myself, but I think I was a bit overwhelmed, and I kind of made sure I kept my feet on the ground and didn't want to have it change the way that I was and the way that I have always grown up being, and that is kind of, stay true; show the respect; if something exciting happens, just learn how to deal with it and don't lose your mind over it. And sometimes I can see that, without dissing anyone, sometimes you can kinda see how people can deal. Everyone accepts and deals with success on a different level . . .
"I just took it in stride and realized that, the way I summarize and define success is not so much the bling," he continues. "It's not so much the monetary side and how much bigger your wallet is or the beautiful house, this big house and nice cars. I think what I realized is learning how to cope with success, and I think that's success."
Jackson isn't kidding about eschewing bling. While we chatted, Queensr˙che was gathering for practice at home in Washington state. For a good part of its career, the quintet rehearsed in the basement of Rockenfield's parents' home, nicknamed "the Dungeon." Having been in the business for almost 30 years, the band has upgraded its practice digs . . . by moving into Jackson's garage.
"I kind of converted my garage into a sort of rehearsal-forward-slash-cafe-forward-slash-motel-forward-slash-daycare," Jackson explains. "We get [guitarist] Mike Stone and anybody that would need a place to stay, we just kind of have them slumber over at my house 'cause there's additional room to accommodate a couple of people, and so, this is where we've been kind of spending most of our days whenever we get together as a band to write or to rehearse."
We chuckle, pointing out the band's lateral move, and Jackson joins in. "Interesting you bring that up, because yeah, it is somewhat of a lateral movement, going from one garage to another . . . Here we are, 25 somethin', 27 years later, kind of back," he laughs, "back at square one, but we obviously have evolved and have developed, and we all have families now and we're showin' a few more natural highlights"—we both laugh harder—"in our hair since we first started.
“We're pretty blessed to have them allow us to have some fun and be able to work as a group, especially when you first started, because perhaps the music at the time wasn't musicianship-wise wasn't quite where we are now . . . we thank them dearly for allowing us to work and to rehearse."
Blistering.com: When somebody says to you that Operation: Mindcrime is now 20 years old, what do you think?
Jackson: The band has evolved so much since, and what I've gathered over the last 20 years was the fact that the album, that story, is just as current as it [was when it was released], and also the fact that you wouldn't think that the album would be still talked about, let alone the fans still reaching for answers. They still talk about the characters: Dr. X, Nikki, Mary. It's just funny how, I find it interesting how fans, even today, still reach for answers for that first Operation: Mindcrime release.
It was a pretty special, magical moment for us. We were right in the middle of a transmission between managements and we were just gettin' ready to sign with Q Prime Management . . . I think the experiences from what we were dealing with with regards to our old management before we severed ties with them, I think you can kind of hear it in our music, because there was some unfortunate scenarios back then that you always hear about between bands and management, and you never think that you would ever be in that sort of position, but we were.
But it is 20 years later, we've moved on, and we're still very blessed and fortunate to continue doing this today. I never in my wildest dream did I ever think about—we're getting ready to write another album here. I would never have thought of that. The only thing on my mind when we first got signed was, "You know, I wanna record on a record, and I wanna tour. And then my life, my dream, my goal is complete." That's what I wanted back then, just to experience what all these bands we grew up listenin' to—“I wanna know what it's about, I wanna experience that”—and here we are 25, 26, 27 years later, still doing what we enjoy doing.
Blistering.com: What else do you remember prominently from that time—like people getting married, or the band going in a particular direction?
Jackson: [Guitarist] Michael [Wilton] had just got married the year before. I think we all kind of had relationships but Michael was the one who got married first, and then [former guitarist] Chris [DeGarmo] and then [singer] Geoff [Tate], and Scotty and myself later.
It was also something that especially Geoff, comin' up with this sort of conceptual idea and you're kind of thinkin', "Well, are we ready for something like this?" You can just imagine what was goin' through our minds back then, you know. But then we finally said, "What's wrong with doin' something like this? Nobody's doin' it. And if they have, it sure has been a long time." From The Wall, Quadrophenia, albums such as that. We just felt that at the time, especially Geoff, he kind of [said], "Look, we're a heavy metal band. Name another heavy metal band that has released any sort of a conceptual idea for an album."
And again, that was the time when the band was running on all cylinders. We all were still hungry for just getting to the next level. I’m not talkin' just monetarily, but just progressing as a band, evolving as a band . . . It was a very magical moment for us, and there was a lot of chemistry goin' on at the time, and I think that's when it kind of started to show a bit of growth in the band, knowing that if no band was doing it, we weren’t gonna be afraid to pursue somethin’ like that. It's not like our career, the popularity of the band was what it was like once [1990’s] Empire hit. We just felt, "Hey, let's do it. Let's pursue somethin' like this. And we got nothin' to lose," and next thing you know it turned into this monster, so we're pretty excited puttin' together the thing at the time . . .
When it was released, we did perform some headlining shows of our own, but we never really got the chance to perform it in its entirety, and once Empire came out and the success of that allowed us to go out and start performing in arenas . . . It was the Operation: Mindcrime tour that we never got a chance to do, plus because Empire was just takin' off for us, we had the opportunity to express ourselves as a band in a way we really wanted to show to the audience what we were capable of. Without sounding egotistical, it just allowed us to pursue something such as a tour like that with the big 30-foot screens on each side and all the visuals from the characters of Operation: Mindcrime. To me, it had to have been the most memorable tour, and I think a lot of it was because it was our first major headlining tour, and to pull out all the stops like that and to show the audience the type of band that we can be, it was [laughs] a bit overwhelming.
