James LaBrie, a professional singer and frontman from Dream Theater, recently said the following in an interview:
"I love it. First of all, I grew up listening to Rush and Queen - my all-time favorites. Freddie Mercury is still my all-time vocal god."
Stephan link
You don't hear too much Freddie in James, so it was pretty surprising to hear that! Still, that made my day. LaBrie is the man.
Is there a link to a transcription of this interview, or the audio?
Definitely different style of singing, different approach, but... having an influence somewhere doesn't mean you're gonna do the same... I love DT, I'm a vocalist but I don't even try to sound like LaBrie (not that I could anyway...)... Same probably with him- different voice and he doesn't even try to immitate Mercury
When "Six Degrees" was released in 2002, James said that he would try to sound like Freddie on "Goodnight Kiss". There are also some "Freddie parts" on the "Frameshift - Unweaving The Rainbow" album which was released last year. By the way, do you know his new album "Sinners & Madmen"? It's a kind of Black Sabbath (Tony Martin era) meets Rush music.
I can't remember the source of the interview but I still have it on my computer. Send me a mail at stephan.lorse@web.de and you'll get it!
Stephan
I'd say LaBrie sounds much more like Freddie on Through My Words than Goodnight Kiss. He used much more vibrato on TMW, which is much more "Freddie-ish".