It would seem that Brian May turned down an offer from Paul Rodgers to join a Free reunion at the Olympics this year.
A number of other guitarists turned the gig down too.
The "official" reason for BM turning it down was because it wouldn't have featured any Queen songs. But could it be more to do with PR's reputation and the split with Queen.
It's because they just don't get on. There was a thread here quite a while ago about rumours of a feud between the two (sorry, can't remember what the title of it was), where I explained the reasons behind this. Basically, a mate of mine was working as a runner for Brian when he played here in Glasgow with Kerry Ellis in 2011. My mate had a Queen + PR crew shirt on, as he had worked on the set when they played here in 2008, and a member of the tour management told him to change it because if Brian saw it, he'd go ape-shit. That particular guy went on to explain that it was because Brian and PR had fallen out over differences of opinion regarding songs, rehearsing, tone/tuning etc during the Cosmos Rocks tour. It seems that PR has tried to extend the olive branch somewhat, and maybe they have put their differences behind them, but I think there is still some friction. I've given up on any notion that Queen + PR will collaborate again, which is a shame because I think it worked well. They are all absolute legends of their trade!
this story goes way way way further back than the Olympics (this year).
Try 1994. yeah!!!! - re-staging of Woodstock
the plan was to have the remaining member of Free appear with Brian May
Andy Fraser (ex free bass player) : "Brian has assumed - and Paul left him to assume - that we'd be doing some Queen songs"
"It was like "I'll just tell him in New York that it was too late". Brian flew home, called me up, bawling down the phone. Paul
(Rodgers) had called him saying "I'm not singing any fucking Queen songs". What changed? He needed the money"
that's as maybe. but there's been nothing to dispute his comments - as "Classic Rock" would surely have checked this out
BEFORE printing this in the current issue
I can imagine May can be a hard person to get on with he was always arguing with Freddie in the studio,
I enjoyed the PR + Queen shows maybe they wanted someone to do as there told and give no imput
Interesting that Paul wanted Brian to join him in that project back in '94 but wouldn't entertain the thought of singing a Queen song or two, yet a while later he was happy to tour the whole catalogue for, according to Fraser, a shed load of money. Still, if Rodgers enquired of Brian to join him at the Olympics there must be a truce of somewhat from his side. Interestingly though Brian and Roger decided to go with Jessie J instead of Rodgers for their slot. Perhaps as Free and Queen were both huge British musical icons in their time, perhaps they should have teamed up one last time at the Olympics for All Right Now and WWRY/Champions.
Brian and PR are still on good terms. The reason the Queen+PR thing ended was in order to save their friendship.
As anyone will tell you PR is not an easy person to get on with, long term, in a band situation. On the Cosmos tour the only time they spent together, if not being interviewed, was on stage. There were two very different touring parties on that tour.
PR works best with a group of backing musicians who know their place, not so with a real band where everyone has an equal say.
completely agree with your last sentence. except maybe he worked best when Kossoff was still alive.
however, the rest of the stuff doesn't add up.
looks more like two very desperate ageing rocks starts who were begging for one last visit to the limelight before they disappeared into senile obscurity.
whole thing backfired because it lacked two key aspects - originality and interest
I think the Cosmos Rocks would have been a lot getter had they got a good and current outside producer to make them work at it.
At a lot of venues on the tour it really looked like PR was there because his name was on the dotted line.
I agree with what you say about Kossoff, but he was only around a short amount of time.
agreed^^^ but they were ALL there because they signed on the dotted line.
i don't think they even respect each other - let alone like each other
as regards the last line: that's the point i was making - Kossoff was the difference, once he died PR's output became dull, predictable and lifeless
yes, some bad company tracks are "not bad" - but here's nothing in anything he has done since Kossoff that matches either
Fire & Water or Highway for me