Dendroica, This little sense of "fan backlash" I believe is attributed to the early stages of him joining the band after the split from Tate when the fan division occurred with the Tate fans not accepting a new singer, and to this day some don't, however most of those people probably weren't paying much attention to the last few Tate led Queensryche records and therefore were basing that premise off past glories.
In the interview I posted in the new album thread with Todd, which also can be found in the Todd La Torre solo album thread, is a really good informative interview and he addresses that question in that interview also, speaking of how a lot of fans embraced him but some were like "oh nobody can replace Geoff Tate in Queensryche" kind of mentality.
So I think these guys may have been either referring Todd saying that in interviews while discussing the situation over the years or they possibly even saw that interview and were using that as a basis for the question. That's how I take it anyway.
Also they always put the controversial stuff in the headline or first paragraph of the write up to get people to read it. Notice the headline "ex Queensryche singer Geoff Tate is not really motivated to work out differences with his former bandmates" that part of the interview is a flash in the pan encompassing about thirty seconds of the interview and not saying anything he hasn't already said. That's how I see it.
