Paul Rodgers says he “may” tour with Queen once again – even though each member of the band has been doing “different things” lately.
The legendary Bad Company and Free vocalist joined guitarist Brian May and drummer Roger Taylor to tour as Queen + Paul Rodgers from 2005 to 2009 – as well as record album The Cosmos Rocks in 2008 – and, while they’ve each been involved in many other projects since then, Paul has not ruled out working with the rock band again.
Paul says that, while the band was placed on hold “because we all wanted to do different things”, they “may” yet get back together again.
The 61-year-old said he “didn’t feel like there was a lot more we could do” after the band “toured the world twice” – releasing live albums Return of the Champions in 2005 and Live in Ukraine four years later – and recorded “the studio album”.
He added that “we didn’t want to do it forever”, although he gave the many millions of Queen fans some hope of a reunion when he said that he “enjoyed playing the role for a while, so we’ll see”.
But Paul, who picked up the outstanding contribution to British music prize at the recent 56th staging of the Ivor Novello songwriting awards at the Grosvenor House Hotel in London, admitted to feeling somewhat daunted when deciding to join the band following the death of original Queen vocalist Freddie Mercury.
Paul believes that he “had to fill a role as well as be myself” when replacing Freddie, who died due to complications related to AIDS back in 1991, but confessed that stepping into the well-established band “was quite daunting”.
The singer – who enjoyed great success with his other bands – added that “at first we were just jamming and having fun”, but he suddenly “realised the enormity of what” he’d got himself into when the band’s crew “put the full rig up” and he “was stood in the middle”.
Paul also says that he “grew to love Freddie” and “always had a great deal of admiration for Queen” and the band’s original singer, but gained even greater respect for the flamboyant star the more he “studied him and his life and death, too”.
He concluded by adding that he was impressed by the way in which the “very, very brave” Freddie gracefully removed himself from the public’s attention after becoming increasingly ill – adding that the singer never talked about “poor me”. link