Replacing a singer under any circumstance is always a tall order. But stepping into the shoes of arguably rock’s most charismatic frontman, Freddie Mercury? Despite near-impossible odds, Queen’s partnership with Adam Lambert has hit all the right notes. The band’s legendary guitarist Brian May gives their current singer the highest of praise, declaring, “[Lambert] has the most extraordinary voice that I’ve ever heard.”
“That says a lot because I’ve heard a lot of voices in my time,” May adds. “It’s an extraordinary instrument and he’s learned how to control it and harness it during the time that we’ve worked with him. Sometimes I just stand and watch, and my mouth drops.”
At first glance, the pairing of Queen and Adam Lambert seems sacrilegious. The London group are classic rock royalty with numerous songs still embedded in the cultural fabric from the sports stadium (‘We Will Rock You’ and ‘We Are the Champions’ remain the gold standard for jock jams) to the KTV room (right now a joyous group singalong of ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ is happening somewhere in the world.)
“We were fortunate to be young boys when rock and roll was born,” May says. “Buddy Holly, Little Richard, Elvis and that stuff was just in our blood from the beginning.”
“As we grew up, we had some great influences like The Shadows. Of course we loved Jimi Hendrix, The Who and Led Zeppelin. By that time we were up and running, struggling as a band for our voice to be heard.”
Of course, they managed to find an audience, racking up an incredible 18 number-one albums with an estimated 150 to 300 million records sold. In their truly astonishing discography, Queen managed to imprint their own stamp on disparate genres like metal (‘Stone Cold Crazy’), disco (‘Another One Bites the Dust’) and rockabilly (‘Crazy Little Thing Called Love’).
Their status as rock gods is so cemented that May admits his most memorable live performance was not Queen’s legendary 1985 Live Aid Performance but playing the National Anthem on his guitar while standing alone on the rooftop of Buckingham Palace to open the Queen’s jubilee concert.
Their influence is so potent that Lambert actually auditioned for the 2009 season of American Idol with a rendition of ‘Bohemian Rhapsody.’
That performance planted the seed in May’s mind for a potential collaboration, which was cemented when the guitarist and Queen’s drummer Roger Taylor appeared on the show to perform with Lambert and fellow contestant Kris Allen on ‘We Are the Champions.’
While the band was confident that the partnership would work, Lambert admits he originally had doubts. “I wasn’t going to turn down this once in a lifetime opportunity but I was concerned about their fans’ reaction,” he says. “I didn’t know if they would accept me singing these songs and I also hoped that I could pull this off. Now five years later, I feel like we finally did it.”
May credits the touring collaboration’s success to Lambert’s ability to be himself. “He has massive confidence and ability, but also a very nice humility,” the guitarist says.
“He goes out there and says, ‘Look, I’m not Freddie Mercury but this is what I do, this is what I would like to do with you guys and let’s celebrate!’ People immediately feel that he’s genuine, because he is. He’s not an imitation of anything else.”
Powerful pipes and a penchant for exuberant showmanship are a couple of traits that Lambert shares with Queen’s iconic original singer Freddie Mercury. May praises Lambert’s ability to shine in high-pressure situations, noting their official first gig was a 2012 joint concert with Sir Elton John at Kiev’s Independence Square, attended by what May estimates was a mere 400,000 people.
“It must have been the most terrifying thing for him to step on that stage, but you’d never have known that he was nervous,” May marvels. “He just walked out, smiled, did his stuff and was great.”
Taking a break from rehearsal for the second leg of Queen + Adam Lambert’s Summer Festival world tour that stops off at Mercedes-Benz Arena on September 26, May promises that the band is sounding their best.
“Roger (Taylor) and I play better now than we did in the old days,” he says. “We have to dig deeper to find that energy because we’re older, but we still have it. Maybe more than ever, we just want to put it out there.”
Although the Shanghai concert will be Queen’s first show on the Mainland, May is eager to see all the changes in the country that he first visited “just before the time of the Internet.”
“I came to Beijing for a total eclipse of the sun, which is something that interests me as an astronomer,” he says. “We had a fabulous time and I felt the culture was so different from my own.”
Besides his interest in astronomy, May also spends time as an animal activist, whose group Save Me has fiercely campaigned against fox hunting and the culling of badgers.
“It’s great to be a musician and speak through your music, but you also have to live,” he says. “Astronomy is about the curiosity that we have about the universe around us, while trying to improve the way we treat animals in the world is a very big part of my life as well. In a sense, all the different parts of my life fit together in a way only I understand, but I live life the way I see.”
Sep 26, 8pm, RMB380-1,680. Mercedes-Benz Arena, see event listing.
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