Adam Lambert joined Jackie Brambles on her Greatest Hits Radio evening show this evening and chatted about the ten years he’s spent working with Queen’s Brian May and Roger Taylor.
Jackie asked Adam about the reaction from Queen fans when he first started singing with the band: ‘There’s always going to be haters,’ Adam admitted. ‘That’s just how it goes and it’s fine – I get being protective of your memory of the band, I totally understand. I think early on that actually lit a fire in me to prove myself and prove them wrong. I was very careful not to imitate Freddie, I always felt that would be tacky and disrespectful, and that’s not what Brian [May] and Roger [Taylor] would have wanted. But I did try to consider the spirit with which the songs were originated, so why the song was written, what it was about, and why Freddie approached singing it that way I try to stay true to the intention.’
Adam on how he thinks Freddie would have felt about his collaborating with Queen: ‘Brian and Roger have often said Freddie wouldn’t have wanted the songs to gather dust, he wanted the music to live on, so I hope in whatever afterlife that might exist he’s having a good time and getting a kick out of it. I always have in the back of my mind when I’m making certain decisions -how to approach a song or what to wear – I’m always like would Freddie get a kick out of this?’
Asked if he feels he’s a part of the band now: ‘It’s a collaboration – the songs were written and originated by the band and everyone knows their songs because of their records, so I look at it as I’m a guest. I get to go on stage and sing these incredible songs. I get to be of service to Brian and Roger so they can perform their songs live and the fans of Queen want to hear these songs played so they need a singer. I’ve tried to approach it with that kind of respect. Freddie was one of a kind, there’s no replacing him but what we try to do on stage is really celebrate him and remember him fondly with the audience.’
Listen to Adam Lambert chat to Jackie Brambles on Greatest Hits Radio at greatesthitsradio.co.uk