Brian May, Roger Taylor and Adam Lambert spoke to the press on December 11 in Berlin Germany, ahead of Queen’s European tour in 2015.
In the video, which the band posted on their website, the band talked about the upcoming tour, finding their groove as a band, and how each member has grown through the process of playing together.
“Maybe the most incredible thing is we weren’t looking for him,” said Brian about finding Adam to front the band, “but there he was. It’s kind of like a gift from God, really.
You could audition 5 million people, and would never find someone like him. And there he is! He chose us. So I’m happy.”
Brian calls the tour technically, “high level” and believes the band wouldn’t have gone out again if they hadn’t found Adam. “I think Roger nor I really need to do this. But if there’s the opportunity, the door opens…it’s great. How could you not do that?”
“It’s raised Brian and my’s game I think,” added Roger.
Adam chimed in, “I’ve definitely grown a lot as a performer working with these guys. We have been playing on and off together for about 3 1/2 years now, since we first hit the stage together.”
“I look back on the stuff that we did in the very beginning,” said Adam, who sang with Queen for the first time at the American Idol finale in 2009. “It was strong, but I feel it’s in a whole new league now.”
With Adam out front, “It’s Queen,” said Brian. An old friend who did security for the band saw them in Vegas and told Brian afterward, “I’ve seen you in a lot of great situations. It was great with Paul Rogers [Foreigner front man who previously toured with the band]. But tonight, I saw Queen.”
“Adam brings a very natural quality to it.” Brian continued. “He doesn’t for an instant try to be Freddie, but some of the stuff he brings is very, very parallel…a certain amount of humor. A bit of camp.”
“I don’t think we’d want to work with anybody else after working with Adam,” Roger added.
On making the songs his own, Adam said, “I don’t want to imitate [Freddie], but I’m also not straying too far from his intention, because I feel like that would be a little bit sacrilegious.”
“It’s taken a bit of time to fine tune it,” said Adam, “But we’re really hitting our stride now with this tour and finding this nice harmony between the old and the new, the past and the present.”
“This is as big a show as we’ve ever done, in terms of sound and light,” said Brian.
“It’s a real honor, and I feel enriched by it,” said Adam about singing with Queen. “But I also feel pretty humbled that the fans have accepted me…the guys have accepted me. It’s amazing.”
Brian May, Robert Taylor, Berlin Press Conference
