‘It still transmits that excitement’: Adam Lambert has helped Queen keep its spark

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Despite their having recently performed with a pair of guest singers, Brian May says the group isn’t out looking for a frontman to replace the departed Freddie Mercury. Fate just keeps stepping in.

First, there was Paul Rodgers, with whom Queen worked from 2005-2009. That partnership grew out of the Fender Strat Pack show in 2004, which found May sitting in with Rodgers on “All Right Now.” Then there was Adam Lambert, who has appeared with May and Roger Taylor ever since. Queen ran into him during a guest shot on the American Idol finale of 2009, where Lambert finished as runner up.

It’s helped ease the way for Queen, after the tragic early passing of the AIDS-stricken Mercury in 1991.

“It’s not easy, and the strange thing is: We don’t really look for singers,” May tells Magic 105.4. “We don’t really try to put Queen back together. But now and again, something will happen. Paul Rodgers and ourselves came together very organically — because I happened to be playing with him. It’s one in hundreds of millions, if you can find someone who can handle those songs.”

Queen put on their first stateside show with Lambert back in September. He goes on to describe Lambert as “extraordinary,” and “a great showman.”

The combination of classic Queen songs and their dynamic new guest singer produced rave reviews.

“I’m proud of what we did — what what we still do,” May adds. “We just did the iHeart Music Festival in Las Vegas, and it was phenomenal. You will get that response. To see a young audience responding the same way people responded at Live Aid, or 1986 in Wembley, or in Tokyo and Argentina, it’s incredible — and I feel fortunate that we whatever we did find, it still works. It still transmits that excitement.”

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