in a band meeting on april 12, 2012, which tate did not attend, the band fired both tate's stepdaughter, miranda, from running the fan club, and his wife susan, their band manager since 2005. according to wilton, the reasons were that "the last 3 years, basically it just came to a point that we didn't have a voice in the band anymore. it was all run by the singer and his manager, the wife." on april 14, 2012, before the soundcheck for a show in são paulo, brazil, tate had an argument with the other members about the firing of his family. this confrontation became heated, leading to tate retaliating by throwing over the drum kit, throwing several punches and physically assaulting and spitting on rockenfield and wilton. over the course of the band's next three shows, wilton, rockenfield, and jackson felt that tate continued to misbehave and they came "to the conclusion that they can no longer work or perform with mr. tate." they called a band meeting on june 5 (some sources say june 6). tate withdrew from this conference call, after which the other band members voted to "consider geoff tate expelled from the band" and "continue to use the queensrÿche name with a new lead singer".