Back in 2005, Brian May and Roger Taylor embarked on their first full Queen world tour since the death of their enigmatic frontman, Freddie Mercury.
Not only did it find May and Taylor performing under the Queen moniker for the first time since 1986, it also saw them joining forces with a new lead vocalist.
Bad Company’s Paul Rodgers was given the unenviable task of filling Mercury’s shoes, but he stepped up to the plate. Queen + Paul Rodgers, as the project was officially called, was a huge success, lasting for two world tours, several high-profile shows and a studio album over the course of four years.
And, as May explained in the May 2005 issue of Guitar World, the lineup had rather surprising origins: a celebration event for the Fender Stratocaster.
For Fender’s 50th Anniversary Strat Pack concert, May and Rodgers joined the bill to play a cover of Free’s All Right Now. May knew they were on to something.
“We were both so knocked out by the sheer chemistry between us on stage,” May remembered. “Afterward, we were talking together when someone – I guess it was me – said, ‘Well, you know, maybe we should do more of this sometime.’”
Taylor remembered May’s excitement over the prospect of getting the band back together with Rodgers at the helm.
“After the Fender gig, Brian got on the phone to me and said, ‘You really have to look at what we just did,’” Taylor recalled. “He sent over a videotape and I could see what he was talking about. I wondered why we hadn’t thought of doing this before.”
To test the waters, May and Taylor teamed up with Rodgers to play at Queen’s induction into the UK Music Hall of Fame. The trio was easily convinced. The Return of the Champions World Tour was swiftly announced. A studio album, Queen’s first post-Mercury, was made.
“Paul does amazingly well, I think,” May said of the collaboration at the time. “The first time I heard him sing We Will Rock You, I knew we had something valid and new here. Paul brings things out of that song I never even knew existed before!”
Despite skeptics surrounding the project, Queen + Paul Rodgers got the Queen machine up and running again. Mercury’s presence was undeniably irreplaceable, but it gave May and co. the chance to honor his legacy by taking the band’s music back on the road. And it can all be traced back to that Stratocaster event.
Things eventually fizzled out in 2009 after Rodgers reunited with Bad Company for a summer tour. It was an amicable split; no one thought it would be a permanent arrangement.
“We did two world tours and a couple of live recordings, and...made a studio album… which was pretty historic,” Rodgers told Billboard (via NME). “They hadn't really gone in the studio with anybody and recorded something like that for a very long time. So it was quite an achievement, I think.”
On the flipside, Queen hasn’t been the only rock institution that Rodgers joined – or at least came close to joining – in his time. Earlier this year, it was reported that Rodgers was approached to front the new Van Halen album.
