Adam Lambert recently recalled his early days of playing with Brian May and Roger Taylor as Queen. He noted how the two legends told him not to copy what Freddie Mercury did and just be him instead.
He picked the spot once occupied by one of the best-loved rock frontmen of all time is tough, to say the least. As Paul Rodgers did before him, the singer who first rose to fame via “American Idol” in 2009 found himself in that spot in 2011, and even though there’s no replacing Freddie Mercury, Lambert proved to be more than capable of doing the job.
Adam Lambert recalls the advice
Reflecting on the origins of Queen + Adam Lambert in a new interview with Ynet News, the 41-year-old vocalist said:
“I was really honored and flattered that they asked me to do it and yeah, I think in the beginning, I was very aware that fans would be super protective of the legacy of the band and I had my own doubts personally, like, can I even pull this off?”
According to Lambert, both May and Taylor had been incredibly supportive from day one, and they never expected him to be a carbon copy of Mercury — but quite the contrary:
“The first thing they said to me the first day of rehearsal is, ‘Do it like you, don’t imitate the records and Freddie,’ and I thought, yeah, that’s probably smart.
“I think making it an authentic interpretation, from my own point of view, was really important out of respect for the band, and still, even then, I thought you still had to find a balance between the original and sort of what my impulses were.
“Because straying too far away from the original also would be a bit disrespectful. So, it was definitely a bit of a balancing act.”
