Brian May replies to fans slagging off Adam Lambert.
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rockchic65 · Member since
As Fairy King points out it's meaningless without the source so here you go - http://www.guitarworld.com/artists/queens-brian-may-sounds-off-about-freddie-mercurys-guitar-skills-bohemian-rhapsody-actors-and-the-most-difficult-song-to-play-live
The relevant part
After Freddie’s passing, it took some time for Queen to tour again. How would you describe the differences between Paul Rodgers and how you now work with Adam Lambert?
It’s a good question. They’re both great, of course. We had a fantastic time with Paul. He has his own style, which we integrated into the band. But what happened was, there was a meeting point where we wanted to go deeply into his music — we were influenced by it in the first place. For me, it was a joy to play “All Right Now,” “Can’t Get Enough of Your Love” and all those things.
It became difficult as time went on, though. We would play South America, where people didn’t know that music, so we played more Queen songs. Paul dealt with it well, but I think it was hard for him to abandon a lot of his material. We really enjoyed it as an experiment, but as an experiment it had… limits. Eventually, we thought, “It’s probably gone as far as it can. Paul needs to get back to his own career.” Because he couldn’t just go on being the frontman of Queen. By mutual agreement, we thought, “That’s it.”
Now, with Adam, it’s a different story, because Adam can do all the stuff that Freddie did and more. It doesn’t matter what you throw at Adam — he can do it. He can do “Good Old-Fashioned Lover Boy” [from 1976’s A Day at the Races], which we wouldn’t dream of throwing at Paul Rodgers, because it just wouldn’t work. With Adam, it’s a different kettle of fish. He’s a born exhibitionist. He’s not Freddie, and he’s not pretending to be him, but he has a parallel set of equipment. He knows how to deal with an audience. He teases and taunts an audience quite naturally, without thinking about it. He loves to dress up. Although Paul did dress up a bit for us. We got a lot of sequins on him. [Laughs]
A little bit.
Adam lives and breathes that stuff. Adam is style, and that’s not to say he’s not content as well. He’s a born rock star and frontman, so it’s a very vibrant relationship we have with him. We treat Adam exactly the same as we treated Freddie in almost every way.
Based on things he's said in the past and how it reads I suspect he means "more" in the context of singing high notes live and not having to alter the key and his voice holding up to touring, he's not meaning he's better than Freddie IMO.
He also said this about Freddie.
People often think of Freddie as a pianist, but he occasionally played guitar, and he would write with one, too. What kind of guitarist was he?
He was very good on the guitar, very unorthodox — all downstrokes. He wrote the riff for “Ogre Battle” [from 1974’s Queen II]. I used to play it with up- and downstrokes, but he was all downstrokes. Imagine how fast his right hand was moving! He had a frenetic energy on the guitar, which came across very well in that song. He played the rhythm on “Crazy Little Thing Called Love.” I wanted to sound as good as Freddie did on that record, which was damn good. He kind of left the guitar after a while and concentrated more on the piano. In the latter days, he even left the piano behind. He just wanted to be a performer who ran around and had the freedom to be a frontman.
rockchic65 · Member since
[QUOTE] [b]Dougie 4 wrote:[/b]
Brian May comes off as a bully at times, especially on Instagram where he sometimes goes after individuals, who then become targets for his fans. He is a powerful, influential person and should refrain from naming and shaming individuals, many of whom are young girls[/QUOTE]
Actually if you read the comments on his instagram it's the fans bullying him, you should see the crap being said to him the other day about the movie and saying he's against LGBT people ffs.
Makka · Member since
[QUOTE] [b]rockchic65 wrote:[/b]
As Fairy King points out it's meaningless without the source so here you go - http://www.guitarworld.com/artists/queens-brian-may-sounds-off-about-freddie-mercurys-guitar-skills-bohemian-rhapsody-actors-and-the-most-difficult-song-to-play-live
The relevant part
After Freddie’s passing, it took some time for Queen to tour again. How would you describe the differences between Paul Rodgers and how you now work with Adam Lambert?
It’s a good question. They’re both great, of course. We had a fantastic time with Paul. He has his own style, which we integrated into the band. But what happened was, there was a meeting point where we wanted to go deeply into his music — we were influenced by it in the first place. For me, it was a joy to play “All Right Now,” “Can’t Get Enough of Your Love” and all those things.
It became difficult as time went on, though. We would play South America, where people didn’t know that music, so we played more Queen songs. Paul dealt with it well, but I think it was hard for him to abandon a lot of his material. We really enjoyed it as an experiment, but as an experiment it had… limits. Eventually, we thought, “It’s probably gone as far as it can. Paul needs to get back to his own career.” Because he couldn’t just go on being the frontman of Queen. By mutual agreement, we thought, “That’s it.”
Now, with Adam, it’s a different story, because Adam can do all the stuff that Freddie did and more. It doesn’t matter what you throw at Adam — he can do it. He can do “Good Old-Fashioned Lover Boy” [from 1976’s A Day at the Races], which we wouldn’t dream of throwing at Paul Rodgers, because it just wouldn’t work. With Adam, it’s a different kettle of fish. He’s a born exhibitionist. He’s not Freddie, and he’s not pretending to be him, but he has a parallel set of equipment. He knows how to deal with an audience. He teases and taunts an audience quite naturally, without thinking about it. He loves to dress up. Although Paul did dress up a bit for us. We got a lot of sequins on him. [Laughs]
A little bit.
Adam lives and breathes that stuff. Adam is style, and that’s not to say he’s not content as well. He’s a born rock star and frontman, so it’s a very vibrant relationship we have with him. We treat Adam exactly the same as we treated Freddie in almost every way.
Based on things he's said in the past and how it reads I suspect he means "more" in the context of singing high notes live and not having to alter the key and his voice holding up to touring, he's not meaning he's better than Freddie IMO.
He also said this about Freddie.
People often think of Freddie as a pianist, but he occasionally played guitar, and he would write with one, too. What kind of guitarist was he?
He was very good on the guitar, very unorthodox — all downstrokes. He wrote the riff for “Ogre Battle” [from 1974’s Queen II]. I used to play it with up- and downstrokes, but he was all downstrokes. Imagine how fast his right hand was moving! He had a frenetic energy on the guitar, which came across very well in that song. He played the rhythm on “Crazy Little Thing Called Love.” I wanted to sound as good as Freddie did on that record, which was damn good. He kind of left the guitar after a while and concentrated more on the piano. In the latter days, he even left the piano behind. He just wanted to be a performer who ran around and had the freedom to be a frontman.[/QUOTE]
Yep, just talking about his vocals, nothing else. Move on.
Holly2003 · Member since
Interesting comments about the split with Paul Rodgers. First time I've heard that as a reason. Does anyone know if the setlists in S. America really changed as much as Brian claims?
rockchic65 · Member since
[QUOTE] [b]Holly2003 wrote:[/b]
Interesting comments about the split with Paul Rodgers. First time I've heard that as a reason. Does anyone know if the setlists in S. America really changed as much as Brian claims? [/QUOTE]
Interesting setlist. Still quite a lot of new / PR stuff.
I'd have hated that.
Holly2003 · Member since
[QUOTE] [b]rockchic65 wrote:[/b]
[QUOTE] [b]Holly2003 wrote:[/b]
Interesting comments about the split with Paul Rodgers. First time I've heard that as a reason. Does anyone know if the setlists in S. America really changed as much as Brian claims? [/QUOTE]
Thanks. A quick survey of other setlists on that tour does suggest fewer non-Queen songs by the end of the tour; but it does seem an odd reason and the wording suggests some reading between the lines is needed. Firstly, the story has always been that when they started collaborating as Queen+ Rodgers wanted an all-Queen set, and B&R insisted that Rodgers's stuff should get a good airing. So far so good, as that tallies with part of what Brian
said in the interview. So why then would Rodgers object when fewer of his songs were played, when it was his original idea to play none at all? Maybe he changed his mind over time. Maybe it's an ego thing. But IMO it does seem a bit unlikely. Brian's comment "Paul needs to get back to his own career” seems a bit terse, even though he said it was by mutual consent. Rodgers has since said something similar but different in an important way: he said that they had accomplished everything they set out to do and there was nothing else to achieve. That very media-friendly wording suggests to me something being held back. It's been mentioned on here by someone "in the know" that they had a bust up towards the end of the tour in part because of Rodgers' not bothering to learn the words to songs and using a teleprompter extensively (which perhaps also explains why his phrasing and tempo was often out of step with the band, and also why he never sung the same song the same way from night to night). It was also suggested that Rodgers, Taylor and May weren't getting on together, that they used separate dressing rooms, had two "camps" etc. I suppose in the overall; scheme of things it doesn't really matter, but it's always fascinated me.
rockchic65 · Member since
[QUOTE] [b]Holly2003 wrote:[/b]
[QUOTE] [b]rockchic65 wrote:[/b]
[QUOTE] [b]Holly2003 wrote:[/b]
Interesting comments about the split with Paul Rodgers. First time I've heard that as a reason. Does anyone know if the setlists in S. America really changed as much as Brian claims? [/QUOTE]
Thanks. A quick survey of other setlists on that tour does suggest fewer non-Queen songs by the end of the tour; but it does seem an odd reason and the wording suggests some reading between the lines is needed. Firstly, the story has always been that when they started collaborating as Queen+ Rodgers wanted an all-Queen set, and B&R insisted that Rodgers's stuff should get a good airing. So far so good, as that tallies with part of what Brian
said in the interview. So why then would Rodgers object when fewer of his songs were played, when it was his original idea to play none at all? Maybe he changed his mind over time. Maybe it's an ego thing. But IMO it does seem a bit unlikely. Brian's comment "Paul needs to get back to his own career” seems a bit terse, even though he said it was by mutual consent. Rodgers has since said something similar but different in an important way: he said that they had accomplished everything they set out to do and there was nothing else to achieve. That very media-friendly wording suggests to me something being held back. It's been mentioned on here by someone "in the know" that they had a bust up towards the end of the tour in part because of Rodgers' not bothering to learn the words to songs and using a teleprompter extensively (which perhaps also explains why his phrasing and tempo was often out of step with the band, and also why he never sung the same song the same way from night to night). It was also suggested that Rodgers, Taylor and May weren't getting on together, that they used separate dressing rooms, had two "camps" etc. I suppose in the overall; scheme of things it doesn't really matter, but it's always fascinated me.[/QUOTE]
Yeah reading between the lines of what they've both said and things said on here I get the feeling they did have a bust up but have decided it's better to say it was by mutual agreement and keep the details quiet. Maybe they've reconciled their differences and don't want things to sound bad, it would be interesting to know what really went on but I doubt we'll find out tbh.
The Real Wizard · Member since
Brian is in marketing mode. And he's not fabricating at all.
Obviously he's talking about Freddie and Adam in the LIVE environment, not in the studio. This should be a given considering the only work he and Roger have ever done with the latter is LIVE work.
He's talking about Lambert's voice. Not creativity or showmanship. He has made this clear numerous times.
Apart from much of the 79-82 era, he's basically right - Lambert is the more consistent and disciplined live singer.
And if anyone has listened to more than the officially released live albums, they'd know that.
dysan · Member since
Yep I agree it's pretty clear. I don't get why there's continued discussion about it apart from the boohooing.
Chief Mouse · Member since
Wizard, spot on. I don't particularly enjoy Lambert but that is a fact. Give Brian a break. It's barely anything to do with Freddie and doesn't undermine him in any way. We know Freddie's live capabilities.
King of all Queen fans · Member since
Brian is a grumpy old money grabbing machine who has lost touch with the real world.
Used to be a sympathatic guy but since several years behaves like a Dick with a capital D
There you go
Star* · Member since
Brian is talking bull, how is Lambert better than Freddie and more exactly ?
Freddie was an outstanding song writer and pianist he was too clever for Adam Lambert and that is a fact, Freddie is regarded as the greatest Rock male singer ever.
Freddie wrote some belting songs that Lambert would never achieve so Mr. May is been very spiteful and selling Adam yet again.
Hype is Lambert's middle name.
rockchic65 · Member since
[QUOTE] [b]Inspired wrote:[/b]
Brian is talking bull, how is Lambert better than Freddie and more exactly ?
Freddie was an outstanding song writer and pianist he was too clever for Adam Lambert and that is a fact, Freddie is regarded as the greatest Rock male singer ever.
Freddie wrote some belting songs that Lambert would never achieve so Mr. May is been very spiteful and selling Adam yet again.
Hype is Lambert's middle name.[/QUOTE]
Have you actually read the article of the other comments by Real Wizard, Chief Mouse, Dysan? He isn't talking about Adam as a songwriter, pianist etc.
Star* · Member since
King of all Queen fans - Yeah Brian and Roger have become hard nosed arrogant fools disrespecting Freddie now for 8 years and using him to make money with holograms and pictures in the concerts.
He is very rude to make Adam look better than Freddie, how dare he do that when Freddie worked his ass off with the band over those 21 years,
Freddie wrote many many great songs and is arguably the greatest song writer in Queen, so maybe Brian is pissed off about that.
