Scott Rockenfield, drummer and founder of Queensrÿche, has taken a break from touring
Last year, Queensrÿche's drummer and founder, Scott Rockenfield, decided to take a break from touring to dedicate himself to his son. His replacement was Casey Grillo, former drummer of Kamelot. Earlier this year, the band entered the studio with producer Chris 'Zeuss' Harris to begin recording the follow-up album to Condition Human , released in 2015.
Asked about the subject in an interview with Rock Talk With Mitch Lafon, Queensrÿche vocalist Todd La Torre spoke about it:
"That's the $25,000 question everyone wants to know. My answer is that I'm not going to tell you right now. [laughs]"
Some people say, 'Well, if Scott recorded it, why wouldn't you say so?' Because if you don't say it, maybe he didn't record it. And then some people said, 'Well, maybe they're not telling to create suspense around the album,' and blah blah blah. So, the only thing I can say is that Scott took paternity leave. This was in April of last year, I remember Casey…we called him to cover some shows, and then that turned into more and more time, a few months. And then [Scott told us]: 'Well, I want to take the rest of the year off.' 'What about January?', 'I don't know yet.' And then the end of the year was approaching and the beginning of 2018 would be the start, and we hadn't had a real answer. And to make sure we could still do our shows, keep Quennrÿche going, Casey decided to continue filling in.
There's nothing new regarding Scott, as far as I know. He hasn't left the band, he hasn't said, 'I'll never come back.' All we know, really, is that he's just enjoying spending time with his son, who's a little over a year old. I mean, the guy gave almost 37 years of his life to Queensrÿche, to the fans and everything else, and he wants time for himself and his family. So how can you argue? A guy just wanting to be a dad, that's all? So that's the kind of deal that goes with it.
