Have Bri & Rog ever spoken about not writing new music under the Queen name

What the topic title says.

I wondered if Brian and Roger had ever spoken in interviews about not writing new music under the Queen name (or to play together) after Freddie's death? (Other than No-One But You of course.)

I wonder if them not writing anything new as Queen plus is what they consider respect to Freddie? Or if they're just not inspired to do so.

From your point of view, I also wonder what you would (have) prefer(red)?

- The situation as is with Queen touring with Adam Lambert or any singer if you aren't keen on him in particular, performing their hits

- Queen making music (with or without John) but writing new music, with Roger and/or Brian singing and no new singer

Does either scenario feel more or less respectful. Would you prefer either if they used a different name than Queen. Do they both feel wrong? Or does neither?

Obviously this is all hypothetical. Scenario 1 is what we actually have, but I was most interested if Roger and/or Brian have ever spoken about songwriting or lack thereof. I just thought I'd also ask your views on these hypothetical (and real) situations too.

Shortly after Freddie died, Brian stated that doing anything under the Queen name would be redundant.

You'd forgive him if he made an exception with the Tribute Concert... or Made In Heaven... or No-One But You... or We Will Rock You... or the Paul Rodgers thing... or Adam Lambert...

As The Cosmos Rocks showed, without Freddie's songwriting input the music just wouldn't be very good. Brian and Roger's solo work is still a long way off of Queen quality. I'd like to see the two of them record some music together together but not as Queen, just as Taylor & May.

[QUOTE] [b]Makka wrote:[/b]

As The Cosmos Rocks showed, without Freddie's songwriting input the music just wouldn't be very good. Brian and Roger's solo work is still a long way off of Queen quality. I'd like to see the two of them record some music together together but not as Queen, just as Taylor & May.[/QUOTE]

I think The Cosmos Rocks suffered because of several reasons. Stylistically and creatively Paul Rodgers came from a very different place to Brian and Roger, having a much sparser style, both singing and writing. Brian was busy at the time working on his Doctorate.

Brian is not a Bassist, maybe if they'd recruited a Bass player and rehearsed the material, and maybe recorded it, as a proper four piece things may have been worked on or played differently.

They suffer from familiarity in the studio, particularly Brian. They should have sought a current producer who could challenge them, make them work harder or look or think differently. Someone like Nick Raskulinecz would have made a huge difference, IMO.

Christmas 2008

Roger: "Hey, Bri. How about that album we just did, eh? Don't you think that could be a springboard for us doing something REALLY creative together - and maybe even with Paul?"

Brian: "Fuck that mate. Jim wants us to knock out renditions of Rock You and Champions every five minutes. With the crusades I'm about to go on, I haven't go the time or inclination to start writing anything."

Roger: "But you're an artist."

Brian: "No, I'm an Atronomist that happens to just play a guitar that's had 8 different necks, 12 different bodies and 4 different tremelo arms."

Roger: "Not an Astronomer; like Russell Grant?"

Brian: "Fuck's sake Roger..........."

Roger: "Ha ha - gets you every time, eh?"

Brian: "Listen, we have to distance ourselves from Paul. He's still got the shits about what I said to him about the state of his eyebrows and the fact that his perma-tan is becoming a distraction for me under the intensity if the stage lights. He thinks I'm a self-serving twat that's only interested in playing my own songs from the Queen catalogue."

Roger: "Well, you are, aren't you."

Brian: "Christ. Is it that obvious?"

Roger: "Yep. Blindingly."

Brian: "Just like the glare off Paul's skin............"

Roger: "But he's a fan-favourite and was also Freddie's favourite singer."

Brian: "No he fucking wasn't; that was a story I made up just to get a bit of kudos with those wankers that pay to watch and listen to us. They bought right into that one!"

Roger: "And so did Paul; he's hoping to forge a career out of this."

Brian: "Yeah? Well, frankly, he can bugger off. That reality TV stuff is the nuts. You remember when we did that mentoring thing and we both looked like we'd rather be anywhere else?"

Roger: "Yeah........"

Brian: "Well, I was only pretending not to enjoy it. I reckon there's a winner there I can exploit and get to sing my Queen songs."

Roger: "You do know you said "I" and "my" there, don't you?"

Brian: "Am I not talking to Jim? Shit, I meant "We" and "our"........"

Roger: "Brian."

Brian: "Yeah."

Roger: "Stick to the Astrology mate."

I disagree with Vocal Harmony, because Paul Rodgers is more of the same pedigree as Brian and Roger than Adam Lambert who has not got a clue what musical direction he is going in.
Paul is rock n roll all the way and with such great music behind him with "Free" & "Bad Company" he is so worthy of my vote.
Queen should get back in the recording studio and work on more tracks with Freddie vocals on them rather than waste time with whipper snapper Lambert.
I thought Freddie was more important to Brian & Roger or are they just fibbing again?

[QUOTE] [b]spiralstatic wrote:[/b]

What the topic title says.

I wondered if Brian and Roger had ever spoken in interviews about not writing new music under the Queen name (or to play together) after Freddie's death? (Other than No-One But You of course.)

I wonder if them not writing anything new as Queen plus is what they consider respect to Freddie? Or if they're just not inspired to do so.

From your point of view, I also wonder what you would (have) prefer(red)?

- The situation as is with Queen touring with Adam Lambert or any singer if you aren't keen on him in particular, performing their hits

- Queen making music (with or without John) but writing new music, with Roger and/or Brian singing and no new singer

Does either scenario feel more or less respectful. Would you prefer either if they used a different name than Queen. Do they both feel wrong? Or does neither?

Obviously this is all hypothetical. Scenario 1 is what we actually have, but I was most interested if Roger and/or Brian have ever spoken about songwriting or lack thereof. I just thought I'd also ask your views on these hypothetical (and real) situations too.[/QUOTE]

They did a long written interview in 2014 and talked about recording without Freddie. I've pasted the relevant bits about recording etc, this is the full interview if anyone want's to read it - https://www.loudersound.com/features/queen-adam-lambert-by-royal-appointment

Their mutual respect has raised the prospect of brand new Queen music. But after The Cosmos Rocks Queen’s veteran pair are wary of going down that route again. When I spoke to Paul Rodgers in 2014 he made clear his own unhappiness at the experience. “Politically, Brian and Roger were calling the shots,” he recalled. “We’d done some amazing shows, and Roger had some hip, cool songs, but it could have been better.”

“I guess, yeah,” Taylor considers. “I had a lot to do with that album. It was made in this room, actually. It had some great stuff on it. I just think that Paul’s more blues and soul – one of our favourite singers, ever – but when it boils down to it he wasn’t the perfect frontman for us. I felt the album was badly promoted by EMI, who were falling to bits at the time. We were on tour in Europe, and I went into record stores and we weren’t in them. And I remember being furious, thinking: ‘Why did we make this fucking record?’

“It certainly made us think twice about making a Queen album with another singer,” he adds. “There’s a resistance among the record-buying public to that idea, because Freddie was so inextricably linked with us. When you lose the brand, people aren’t interested. That’s why even Freddie’s solo albums, or Mick Jagger’s, or certainly mine, aren’t going to break any sales records. People want the brand. It’s a horrible word, but very apt.”

“I wouldn’t be averse to recording again,” May considers, “but we haven’t discussed it. And we spent a huge amount of time making that album with Paul Rodgers, going through quite a lot of pain, and I don’t think it made the slightest dent on public consciousness. So I would be cautious about being in a recording group called Queen without Freddie. Maybe we should be doing something else with Adam. Maybe we should be part of his recording future.”

Lambert, with a third solo album to finish and a successful solo career to resume once this tour is done, is also politely noncommittal. “I’m so honoured to be performing with the group,” he says. “It’s a limited engagement, a once-in-a-lifetime thing. Getting in the studio and creating new music and calling ourselves Queen is a different situation.”

“I’ll say one thing,” Taylor states. “If we have the material, then I wouldn’t go into making a record with any other singer than Adam, because he is so perfect with Queen. He has the range and the talent. I certainly wouldn’t be averse to giving it a go.”

Taylor knows, though, that he and May will never have as strong a collaborator as Mercury again. With bassist John Deacon retired since 1997, the duo are Queen, and anyone else they work with isn’t.

“You’re right, of course,” Taylor concurs. “With Freddie we were all contemporaries. I don’t think there’ll ever be anybody who will come into our group like that. But we very much respect Adam’s ideas. He’s incredibly musical, and we’d certainly take anything that he said quite seriously.”

Does Mercury’s loss, though, necessarily weaken any music Queen make in the future?

“Well, you’re missing your best and prime songwriter,” Taylor says. “We could all write songs, but Freddie was born to it. He constantly surprised us. I still don’t know where some of his lyrics came from, they’re so clever, almost Cole Porter-ish at times. Or like when he was writing all that slightly Tolkien-esque, proggy stuff. I never saw Freddie read a book, but he must have been a great black hole of information. That’s why Brian and I haven’t made more new music since he died, because we know we wouldn’t bring the full arsenal that we had to the table. I have a deep suspicion Adam would fill some of that gap, but we haven’t actually written anything with him yet. We haven’t even discussed it between ourselves.”

Taylor believes that he and May have lost some of the creative tension that left such productive blood on the studio floor in the 70s and 80s. “It’s not the same as when there were four of us all pulling in different directions. We know each other too well, so we skirt around each other a bit. We know our strengths, so there’s a tacit agreement on things.”

Their musical extremes, too, have gone. “Part of Freddie’s thing was to say: ‘Too far’s not far enough!’” recalls Taylor. “We used to like to stretch the boundaries in Queen if we could. But I don’t think we stretch boundaries any more. We’re good at what we do. We’re prisoners of our own making, I suppose. It’s not a bad prison.”

“We haven’t really recorded together for so long, I don’t know how it would be now,” says May. “Queen was a fight all the way along the line, sometimes quite destructively, and out of it all came a great strength. Roger and I still disagree about almost everything in the universe, but I think we’ve grown up some. We know when it’s time to back off, though that’s hard for us both. It’s like brothers, I suppose. We still have our moments on email. Things get quite ugly there, generally about music, arguing over the smallest parts. Which I suppose shows that we still care.”

[QUOTE] [b]rockchic65 wrote:[/b]

They did a long written interview in 2014 and talked about recording without Freddie. I've pasted the relevant bits about recording etc, this is the full interview if anyone want's to read it - https://www.loudersound.com/features/queen-adam-lambert-by-royal-appointment

Their mutual respect has raised the prospect of brand new Queen music. But after The Cosmos Rocks Queen’s veteran pair are wary of going down that route again. When I spoke to Paul Rodgers in 2014 he made clear his own unhappiness at the experience. “Politically, Brian and Roger were calling the shots,” he recalled. “We’d done some amazing shows, and Roger had some hip, cool songs, but it could have been better.”

“I guess, yeah,” Taylor considers. “I had a lot to do with that album. It was made in this room, actually. It had some great stuff on it. I just think that Paul’s more blues and soul – one of our favourite singers, ever – but when it boils down to it he wasn’t the perfect frontman for us. I felt the album was badly promoted by EMI, who were falling to bits at the time. We were on tour in Europe, and I went into record stores and we weren’t in them. And I remember being furious, thinking: ‘Why did we make this fucking record?’

“It certainly made us think twice about making a Queen album with another singer,” he adds. “There’s a resistance among the record-buying public to that idea, because Freddie was so inextricably linked with us. When you lose the brand, people aren’t interested. That’s why even Freddie’s solo albums, or Mick Jagger’s, or certainly mine, aren’t going to break any sales records. People want the brand. It’s a horrible word, but very apt.”

“I wouldn’t be averse to recording again,” May considers, “but we haven’t discussed it. And we spent a huge amount of time making that album with Paul Rodgers, going through quite a lot of pain, and I don’t think it made the slightest dent on public consciousness. So I would be cautious about being in a recording group called Queen without Freddie. Maybe we should be doing something else with Adam. Maybe we should be part of his recording future.”

Lambert, with a third solo album to finish and a successful solo career to resume once this tour is done, is also politely noncommittal. “I’m so honoured to be performing with the group,” he says. “It’s a limited engagement, a once-in-a-lifetime thing. Getting in the studio and creating new music and calling ourselves Queen is a different situation.”

“I’ll say one thing,” Taylor states. “If we have the material, then I wouldn’t go into making a record with any other singer than Adam, because he is so perfect with Queen. He has the range and the talent. I certainly wouldn’t be averse to giving it a go.”

Taylor knows, though, that he and May will never have as strong a collaborator as Mercury again. With bassist John Deacon retired since 1997, the duo are Queen, and anyone else they work with isn’t.

“You’re right, of course,” Taylor concurs. “With Freddie we were all contemporaries. I don’t think there’ll ever be anybody who will come into our group like that. But we very much respect Adam’s ideas. He’s incredibly musical, and we’d certainly take anything that he said quite seriously.”

Does Mercury’s loss, though, necessarily weaken any music Queen make in the future?

“Well, you’re missing your best and prime songwriter,” Taylor says. “We could all write songs, but Freddie was born to it. He constantly surprised us. I still don’t know where some of his lyrics came from, they’re so clever, almost Cole Porter-ish at times. Or like when he was writing all that slightly Tolkien-esque, proggy stuff. I never saw Freddie read a book, but he must have been a great black hole of information. That’s why Brian and I haven’t made more new music since he died, because we know we wouldn’t bring the full arsenal that we had to the table. I have a deep suspicion Adam would fill some of that gap, but we haven’t actually written anything with him yet. We haven’t even discussed it between ourselves.”

Taylor believes that he and May have lost some of the creative tension that left such productive blood on the studio floor in the 70s and 80s. “It’s not the same as when there were four of us all pulling in different directions. We know each other too well, so we skirt around each other a bit. We know our strengths, so there’s a tacit agreement on things.”

Their musical extremes, too, have gone. “Part of Freddie’s thing was to say: ‘Too far’s not far enough!’” recalls Taylor. “We used to like to stretch the boundaries in Queen if we could. But I don’t think we stretch boundaries any more. We’re good at what we do. We’re prisoners of our own making, I suppose. It’s not a bad prison.”

“We haven’t really recorded together for so long, I don’t know how it would be now,” says May. “Queen was a fight all the way along the line, sometimes quite destructively, and out of it all came a great strength. Roger and I still disagree about almost everything in the universe, but I think we’ve grown up some. We know when it’s time to back off, though that’s hard for us both. It’s like brothers, I suppose. We still have our moments on email. Things get quite ugly there, generally about music, arguing over the smallest parts. Which I suppose shows that we still care.”[/QUOTE]

Thanks so much for this! I'll head and read the whole article now, but really good insight in this discussion and very honest words from Roger, I felt.

And now I have to be honest myself and say I haven't even heard The Cosmos Rocks! I have heard the title but didn't know what it was.

I discovered Queen as a child at the release time of Made in Heaven when I heard Heaven for Everyone on the radio and they were THE band for me through my whole childhood, for a decade, but my Dad died and I just stopped listening to music and when I began again, not that I stopped loving Queen, but I didn't follow anything new they were doing at all until more recently, so I guess this proves their point: I didn't even know that The Cosmos Rocks existed. I'd thought it was just another collection of "greatest hits", whoooopssss, for shame,

[b]dudeofqueen[/b] haha & oh no, you've given me the hot shame of a flashback - I was lucky enough to meet Brian who was super-lovely and the kindest man, taking time for everyone, but the idiot that I am mentioned my favourite Queen song, which was not one of his songs and I am sure Brian was really offended that I hadn't said one of his songs was my favourite. Eeeeekkkkk.

Well, there you have it. Actually, quite an in-depth analysis why they haven't recorded much new since "Made in Heaven". I agree that Roger seems to have very good insight and he was very honest indeed.

I still think though the best thing for them would have been to give it another go after the promo of "Made in Heaven" ended. John was still with them and it would have been great if they recruited a proper new singer at the time and formed a new band while they were still a creative force. Something like Velvet Revolver then. In 1998 Roger and Brian released pretty decent solo albums (in my opinion) and I think we could have received something very interesting if they joined forces at the time.

But that's obviously pure speculation. If you read any interviews with Brian from that era, he was clearly past it and Queen seemed very much like a closed chapter for him. In a way, I like the way they ended it with "No-One But You". I think they know very well and we all know too it was the last time they were really Queen and everything after that doesn't really count as Queen, including "The Cosmos Rocks" which seems to be omitted from any discography re-releases, for example. It's just Queen+. No new album with Adam, please. Touring is fine, but a new album with someone with his pop/dance pedigree would be a serious mistake.

I remember listening to an interview with Brian around 1998 when he was doing his Another World promo, I think it was with Nicky Campbell in the BBC. Both the interviewer and public calling in, obviously mentioned Queen a lot, and Brian was very dismissive every time, even coming over as quite rude.
And wasn’t there going to be a Queen tour around that time? Sure I read something in a fan club magazine with a letter from Brian saying that, but also saying there were problems.....
For me, Brian has always been the hesitant one when it comes to Queen post Freddie . I just wish we knew what the FULL story is with John, just seems such a shame

Yeah Brian has become very pig headed since Freddie passed even to the point of arrogance, he takes the lead and leaves Roger trailing behind, so if he wants to do a certain thing with Queen
he will go with it full steam ahead and let Roger know later........
Adam Lambert was one of those things, and Brian hyped the shit out of hiring Adam Lambert and that is why many Queen fans go along with this crazy combo because they think "well if Brian says its ok it must be" well i am not one of those easily led Queen fans, and do not forget Brian has made bad choices after Queen finished with Freddie and John.
Working with Dappy, Five, Pepsi Adverts, and even doing a piece with the awful Peter Kay how crap was that!
Brian needed Freddie to keep him on the line but now Brian crossed that line with many fans.
There will be no new Queen album although Brian likes to guest on peoples albums because he knows its easier that way.

I've read the full article now and must confess I have the strongest desire to be a fly in the (wire?!) computer to hear some of the May/Taylor arguments that apparently still go on... via e-mail!!!?!!

[QUOTE] [b]Gold wrote:[/b]

Yeah Brian has become very pig headed since Freddie passed even to the point of arrogance, he takes the lead and leaves Roger trailing behind, so if he wants to do a certain thing with Queen
he will go with it full steam ahead and let Roger know later........
Adam Lambert was one of those things, and Brian hyped the shit out of hiring Adam Lambert and that is why many Queen fans go along with this crazy combo because they think "well if Brian says its ok it must be" well i am not one of those easily led Queen fans, and do not forget Brian has made bad choices after Queen finished with Freddie and John.
Working with Dappy, Five, Pepsi Adverts, and even doing a piece with the awful Peter Kay how crap was that!
Brian needed Freddie to keep him on the line but now Brian crossed that line with many fans.
There will be no new Queen album although Brian likes to guest on peoples albums because he knows its easier that way.[/QUOTE]

Yet another example of you choosing to cherry pick facts and not reading the thing properly if at all. It's very clear Roger want's to work with Adam even saying "I wouldn't go into making a record with any other singer than Adam" so how does that fit with your theory of Brian calling all the shots?

[QUOTE] [b]spiralstatic wrote:[/b]

I've read the full article now and must confess I have the strongest desire to be a fly in the (wire?!) computer to hear some of the May/Taylor arguments that apparently still go on... via e-mail!!!?!! [/QUOTE]

Yeah so would I, maybe there'll be some glimpses of what goes on in the documentary they're doing, maybe little bits of bickering between them, you never know.

"Paul wasn't the perfect frontman", "EMI promoted the album badly", and "the public is resistant to the idea of another singer".
Very "honest" of them to blame everyone else.