An Evening With Queensryche

The video for "Home Again," the touching ballad from Queensrÿche's latest album American Soldier, will receive its worldwide debut on Tuesday, September 1 at Noon Et on Military.com, the largest military and veteran membership organization. "Home Again" has really struck a chord with the military community and the band is using the video as an opportunity to honor them once again. Last month, Queensrÿche used the band's Web site and Military.com to ask service members to submit photos with their families to be used in the clip. The final version of the video features dozens of submitted photos interspersed with the band performing the song live on tour. One grand prize winner was chosen at random from all submissions to win an Esp LTD Michael Wilton Guitar signed by the band.
Like all the songs on American Soldier, "Home Again" is based on a real soldier's story as told to singer Geoff Tate. The song features a duet between Geoff and his 11-year-old daughter Emily and examines the emotional toll of war from two perspectives-Geoff singing from the soldier's point of view and his daughter singing from that of the child left behind.
This song is inspired by a series of letters between a soldier and his young daughter back at home. He was laughing about how he thought it was really cute to him that, in the letters, they were both saying the same things and even using the same terminology," says Tate. "There is a lot of emotion attached to this song. The whole idea of separation between loved ones is one of my favorite topics, perhaps because I live and breathe it being away from my kids and my wife while touring. You miss them so much, and it's like you live two separate lives. When you're a soldier and you're away, it's very difficult to bridge those two worlds.
Since the release of the album, the band has made several special appearances on various military bases across the United States including stops at Fort Lewis in Seattle, Miramar Air Station in San Diego, and Fort Benning in Georgia. The second U.S. leg of the band's American Soldier tour is ongoing, including a few California dates in September with Chickenfoot, leading up to the ShipRocked Cruise (www.getshiprocked.com) in November.